Lady's Mantle
by annie1994
Summary: It's been several years since the fight with Grima, and Ylisse is for the most part, peaceful. Freya has become the new palace apothecary, on the recommendation of her old childhood friend Stahl. While she is excited at first, she soon finds that the position is more precarious than she thought, as an unknown poisoner kills the inhabitants of the palace one by one. StahlxOC
1. Prologue

Prologue

"Freya! Come here—I need your help with this potion!" I let out a long suffering sigh, despite the fact that it was my last day of being an apprentice, Mister Adelbert seemed perfectly happy to work me as hard as he could. Not that it was a problem, when it all came down to it this was work I enjoyed, and soon enough I'd be leaving for Ylisstol and setting up my own shop.

With my arms full of marshmallow root, I kept the grin on my face as I went to work on a potion to soothe sore throats. Evert, Adelbert's younger son cast me a knowing glance as he went to work chopping up peppermint and mugwort for a potion to soothe digestion troubles. "So you're real excited to get out of here, aren't you?" I looked up to make sure that the old man wasn't in ear shot—he wouldn't be angry at me going, but I had a feeling that it hurt him a little bit. After raising two kids as best as he and his wife could, only for one to go off and become a shepherd, he'd quickly fallen into the habit of fathering me.

After I left it'd only be one chick left in the nest. Still, I couldn't deny that I was excited. "I am! You've seen Stahl's letter's, Ylisstol is supposed to be an amazing place." We really weren't that far away from it right now, two days walking distance and a half day by a horse, but like many people in Ylisse, I'd never left the town I was born in.

Until now, that is. Stahl had written back one day about the palace needing a new apothecary after the last died without any apprentices to take up the practice. His father didn't want to leave, Evert was next in line to pick up this business, which left myself. There wasn't much to leave behind, I had no siblings, and I'd lost my parents in the war—if I was to be quite honest, I was looking for a fresh start.

"Mmm, I wouldn't put too much stock in his letters—You know how he can be Freya, glass is always half full." I sensed just a bit of annoyance in his tone, Evert loved his brother, but Stahl as the eldest son was supposed to be the one who took over, and when he left suddenly to join the Shepherds, it left Evert to learn how to run the business. Seven years later, and Evert hadn't really let the whole scandal go. Still, Evert wasn't entirely wrong in his statement, sure I knew Stahl was an optimist, but I didn't really know him.

He was almost four years older than me, twenty six to my twenty two, and while we'd known each other through childhood, it had been Evert who was my age and my best friend, not Stahl. The two brother's couldn't be less alike, sure, they looked almost identical, but if Stahl was a glass half full kind of guy, Evert was a glass completely empty man. You wouldn't know it for a while after you met him, Evert had learned to keep it to himself for the most part, and not to complain lest his optimistic father and brother tried (and failed) to lecture him on the benefits of positive thinking.

"You better be careful with that sort of talk, your dad might hear you." I snickered just a bit at the grumble he let out underneath his breath. "Even if it's not perfect like Stahl says, it's gotta be good at least. Chrom is a very good ruler, and we've had a lot of peace these past few years since he defeated Grima. Those are the types of things that lead to a boom in business."

There was a shrug, from my friend, which I took to mean that he agreed with me. The rest of my last day was smooth sailing, aside from Adelbert being just a tad more gruff than usual when asking me to do something. I wasn't bothered, I was still excited about the rest of my life starting the very next day, and I was completely confident that nothing could shake me.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The rest of my life wasn't starting the way that I thought it would.

I was riding pillion on Stahl's horse, my arms tight around his waist, in fear that we'd fall off in what seemed to be one of the worst storms that I'd ever seen. The usual half day journey was taking a bit longer, his horse was reluctant to go at a faster pace in the muddy roads, there wasn't a place for us to stop and get shelter from the storm, and while Stahl was calm, I had a feeling that his horse was picking up on the fact that I was nervous.

"I didn't know you were afraid of horses!" Stahl said as we finally rounded the last bend before we arrived in Ylisstol, unable to see me scowling at his back.

I wanted to shake my head, but I was so close to him that it was impossible to do so without me loosening my grip, which didn't have a chance in hell of happening. "I'm not afraid of horses! I'm afraid of freak storms that run the risk of flooding."

His laugh rumbled through his chest, which due to our close quarters, I was able to feel. Despite the cold rain, and being more soaked than I thought possible, I couldn't help but laugh as well. "Thank you again for coming to bring me to Ylisstol. I was thinking that I'd have to walk and camp out." I removed my forehead from the back of his shoulder, and looked at our drenched surroundings—it would have been a much more miserable journey if I had tried to make it on foot, and there was little doubt in my mind that I would have doubled back and delayed it if it wasn't for Stahl and his horse.

"Happy to help! I didn't want you walking all the way to the capital by yourself, these roads can be dangerous." Stahl couldn't see my eyebrow raise in confusion, since the war ended and Grima was defeated I hadn't heard of much violence. Hell, the shepherds had stopped going around the country on a regular basis and had split up for the most part.

While I was prone to believe him, my natural tendency to be curious prompted me to ask a question, "How do you mean? I haven't heard of any violence going on."

"They're safer now, you're right, but…" his voice trailed off, and for one of the first times since I knew him, Stahl didn't seem to be happy. It was hard to tell without being able to see his face, but I got the sense that he was remembering something he didn't really want to remember. "Things aren't always what they seem, let's leave it with that."

I muttered a small something in the affirmative, not entirely sure how to interact with this more serious Stahl that I wasn't used to. Craning my neck to see above his shoulder, I was able to see a structure over the horizon that I simply couldn't understand for a moment.

The town I was from was a decent size, a few dozen families spread out in houses that were two stories tall at the most. The tallest building was a temple, and that was hardly half a story taller than the largest house in the village. So when I saw the white and tan behemoth of a city before me, with buildings going up higher than I thought possible, I thought that it was a mountain. I sucked in a breath of air, still humid though the rain had begun to go away. "Why—why is there a mountain there?"

Stahl, to his credit tried his best to muffle his laughter at my exclamation. "I thought the same thing when I first saw it. That's Ylisstol. We're not over the hill yet, once we get to the crest you'll be able to see the whole thing. That tallest peak is the palace actually, you'll be taking up one of the smaller towers." As we finally came to the top of the hill, I could still hardly comprehend that what I was looking at was a city, not some sort of mountain range.

When his horse came to a stop, Stahl slid off his horse and helped me down so I could get a better look at it all. At the moment it didn't matter that my boots were getting caked with mud, along with my pants. I didn't care that I was cold and was probably going to catch a chill if I didn't change soon. All I could think about was the fact that this giant city was going to be home, and that in a place so large, I would definitely be able to find some sort of fresh start there.

"Thank you again for this." My face was too cold to smile comfortably, the edges of my mouth stung as I wore a bright grin. "I'm really excited to get a fresh start." My hands shook a little bit from the cold, my breath fogged up in front of me, but still I was so much in awe that I didn't want to move. I wanted to cement this picture in my mind forever.

Stahl shot me a bright smile, before shrugging off his cloak and putting it over on my shoulders before I could protest. It didn't provide much warmth, but as the rain started back up again its tightly woven material kept me shielded from the water. "Let's get you in there then, so you can get your 'fresh start'." Just like that, he rested his hands on my waist and hoisted me atop his horse like it was the easiest thing in the world. Not entirely surprising, considering his job consisted of him wearing heavy armor and swinging around a heavy sword. I was more surprised by the fact that he was able to climb back on his horse without any sort of assistance. I had a feeling that it was because he was so damn tall.

My jaw was dropped the entire time that we made our way through the crowded city—I had never seen a place so packed with people. Hell, I didn't think that so many people even existed.

Soon enough, we were at the palace, and Stahl was leading me around the side through a smaller entrance instead of the large one in the front. I thought at first that it was because of the fact that our clothes were far from neat and tidy, and I presumably looked like a drowned rat, until he piped up to answer my silent question. "This was is actually faster than going through the main entrance. The part of the palace where the royals, gentry and guests stay is the bigger building, there's a small building to the side where the stables are, the apothecary is, the doctor's live…" his voice trailed off as we turned a corner and were faced with a building that looked like a smaller version of the palace.

Even if it was small compared to the palace itself, it was still larger than anything I had ever seen in my home town.

He led me to the northern tower, and through the door, where we were met with a living space that looked more like it had been ransacked than anything else. "Oh my god—what happened in here?" I set my bags down and walked further in to survey the damage. Upon closer inspection it all looked superficial, though considering the tower was three floors, I had a feeling that there was probably more to this mess.

"Ah— I didn't write this in the letter because we weren't sure, but the reason we need a new apothecary was that the other was accused an executed for attempted murder. I whipped my head towards Stahl so quickly that I felt a pain in my neck. "They thought that he poisoned a lot of people…."

"They 'thought' that he poisoned people? Do they not think that now?" the tower must have been turned apart when they had been looking for evidence, or at least that was what I was going to assume at this point.

Stahl grimaced a bit, like he was uncomfortable stating this fact, "They got the wrong person. The poisonings are still going on." He let out a sigh at my wide eyed shock, Stahl never liked speaking about the dark side of things and this was just about as dark as something could possibly get. "Don't worry about it, Frederick is in charge of the investigation now, and he will almost definitely find out who it is soon. We fought together in the war, he's very methodical."

There was a long pause before the smile returned to his face, like he was forcing himself to think of more positive things. "How about this; I'll ask them to get you some hot water for a bath, you can get warmed up and changed, I will do the same back in my quarters, and I'll come back to help you."

For a moment I was distracted by the fact that I'd actually have a tub all to myself and would be able to have hot water for it instead of the typical cold water at Adelbert's home. This was a type of luxury that I previously did not think possible for me. I was quick to focus back in though on what was actually going on.

I couldn't help but feel that I was wearing a dead man's shoes, trying to step into his job and his life that was taken away from him when he deserved to live. Still, this was something that I had always wanted to do, and returning home would never provide an opportunity to have my own shop unless both Adelbert and Evert passed away and the shop was passed onto me. That wasn't something I wanted, certainly.

"That sounds like a good idea Stahl, thank you for all your help." I made myself smile, despite the dark circumstances. There wasn't a reason to be worried, if this Frederick that Stahl mentioned was as good as he sounded, then it would all be wrapped up soon enough, and we wouldn't have to worry about anything.

He set my other bags of belongings carefully on the ground, and gave me a small nod, "I'm happy to do it, I'll ask around and see if anyone will be able to help us set things to right. That ought to make things a lot easier, having a spare set of hands." With that he turned around, gently shut the door and left, leaving me alone with a tower full of toppled down and broken furniture, three bags that contained all of my belongings, and what appeared to be a bag of disorganized seeds next to my foot on the floor.

I had a feeling that today was going to be a long one.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

As much as I hated to be swayed by something as frivolous as a hot bath, I felt much better. My first priority was righting the furniture in the bottom floor living space, before getting to my working space, I wanted to make sure that I had a clean place to sleep tonight.

I let out a long sigh as I failed to right a fallen dresser to it's upright position, when I heard a knock on my front door. "It's open!" I looked up and was greeted with the familiar face of Stahl, and an unfamiliar redheaded woman who seemed to exude confidence from every pore. "Ah—hello! My name is Freya," I hopped over the heavy dresser and walked across to shake the hand of who I assumed to be a friend of Stahl.

"Hey! The name's Sully, it's nice to meet ya." She took a look around the room, a frown on her face before she spoke again, "Damn, they really took a number on this place, didn't they?" she brushed past me and easily righted the dresser that I was unable to lift. "We'll be able to fix it up, though."

That in itself wasn't entirely surprising, the most workout I got was weeding the gardens, but the ease with which she did it was a bit shocking. It must have shown on my face because Sully shot me a knowing grin, and Stahl patted my shoulder as he got to work as well.

The entire tower was a mess, I'd gotten to look at it after Stahl had left me to bath. The first floor was the least damaged, there was a lot of dust, a few splintered remains of what I presumed to be an old chair or stool, and furniture turned over, but with a good mopping and turning things right side up, it would be right as rain. The next two floors were the problem.

The second floor was where the apothecary itself was set up. All the bookshelves, all of the tables, all of the pots, pans, glasses, tools, everything that was used to make potions and tonics was there. Now, it was all turned over—it looked more like someone had gone through trying to break everything they could, than a police investigation. The glass would be the hardest to clean up, more so than the tables and bookshelves, but it would be something that I could do myself without bothering Sully and Stahl.

The top floor was also going to be a pain, though the biggest problem was the sheer volume of planters that had been tipped over. It served as a green house for the more delicate plants, ones that wouldn't survive outside and needed a regulated temperature. None of the planters were broken, from what I could tell, but the dirt and fertilizer was everywhere, and I had a feeling that I could clean it by myself, but it would take about a day of scrubbing to do just that.

I set myself to work picking up the smaller objects up and trying to get things tidied up while the pair worked on the larger objects. My face was contorted in a frown, as I tried to figure out why the name Sully sounded familiar. Was it from Stahl's letters? Possibly, though because we weren't close, he didn't write to me in much detail about what was going on in his life, more about his general well being. Taking a look at her, I knew that I definitely hadn't seen her before. She shot me a wry look when she noticed my eyes upon her, "Something wrong?"

"I'm sorry—I'm just trying to figure out where I'd heard your name before, it sounds familiar." I looked to Stahl for some helpful suggestion, and found him trying to control his laughter. For some reason, I had the feeling that he'd planned something, but I wasn't sure what yet.

Sully was quick to laugh herself, answering me after she set my table and chairs back to life. "You've probably seen it on those royal announcements that they put out. The most recent one would have been about my daughter, Kjelle being born." My eyes became as round as saucers, as everything clicked in my mind. Princess Kjelle's birth announcement had been read in the town square by a herald, proclaiming that our Exalt Chrom and his Queen Sully had a second daughter, just about a year before. The queen was in my home, helping me by doing heavy lifting. The only thing that came into my mind was the fact that I hadn't dressed nicely before she'd gotten there, and hadn't put out any food.

Granted, I didn't have any food to put out, but this all still felt like I was being incredibly rude. Stahl had muffle his laughter at what I assumed to be my surprised expression by putting his fist to his mouth, and Sully shot me an amused grin, "I'm a soldier before I'm the 'queen', so don't bother with any titles or that sort of crap, I don't care about it."

I nodded silently, trying to think of what was appropriate to say in this situation, as she crossed the room to my side and began to move the mattress onto the bedframe, before I finally settled on "Thank you again for helping me, ma'—"

"Like I said, no titles, I'm Sully." She clapped my shoulder, before shooting me a knowing grin, and spoke in a stage whisper, "If you want, I can get back at Stahl for messing with you—we train every morning, I'll wail on him extra hard tomorrow." The grin was quick to leave Stahl's face, replaced by an indignant expression, and an exclamation of protest.

I looked at him and then back to Sully, before smiling brightly back at her, "Yes please, that'd be great."

The rest of the night was spent with a great deal of banter and laughs, I was pretty sure that Stahl and Sully were making a conscious effort to put me at ease in this new place that was so different than my expectations, and it certainly worked. We were able to get the first floor looking pretty good, it was still in need of a hearty scrubbing, but I could do that the next day. The other two floors were better as well, the furniture and pots were all set to rights, and all that was left was for me to sweep up the glass and dirt, and then scrub those down as well. All in all, we got more done than I thought was possible, and by the time Sully left a little before midnight, I was thoroughly exhausted and ready to fall asleep.

I sat down at the foot of my bed, quite surprised at how soft it was. My mattress back home was stuffed with straw, and this seemed to be stuffed with some sort of wool or fleece. I looked up to Stahl with a smile, "Thank you again for bringing me here. I really appreciate it."

"I was very happy to do it, I'm certain you'll be great here." He sat himself down at the trunk just a few feet away, and let out a long and tired sigh. I was certain that he was as tired as I was, perhaps more so since he'd been doing more heavy lifting than I had. He looked at me for a moment, before straightening himself up just a bit, removing his elbows from his knees. "What is it that you wanted to ask me?"

Damn! I forgot about how good he was at reading people. "Why didn't you tell me about what had happened with the apothecary before?" I knew that he'd said it was because at the time, the whole debacle was still going on, but it didn't seem like Stahl to withhold information like that without some sort of extraordinary reason.

He wrung his hands together just a bit, frowning while he did so—"I didn't want my family to know about the poisonings. It's been a wide range of people targeted, and they haven't found a pattern yet. You know how my father can get—he almost had a conniption fit when I announced that I wanted to be a Shepard, he wouldn't take this news very well."

Stahl had a point, not that I really wanted to admit it. Adlebert probably would have marched his way down to the capital to make sure his son was safe if he'd heard about that. "You're right—It's probably for the best." I paused for a moment, studying the unusually dark look on his face before I finally spoke, "If you'd like, I won't tell them about this until it's over." It was hard to put into words why seeing Stahl serious made me a little apprehensive, though I suspected it had to do with my impression of him as a very positive person all the time.

"I would appreciate that Freya, thank you." He massaged his temples for a moment, before taking a deep breath and plastering a smile on his face once more. "They don't expect you to get to work for about another week, so you'll have plenty of time to get everything in order, and start on the needed potions. I'd recommend getting yourself acquainted with the palace and the worker's house. You'll be able to go to the kitchens and ask for food whenever you need some, though they'll usually have more foods ready after the typical meal times." He paused, as if he was thinking of anything else useful that I'd need to know before finally landing on something. "My rooms are close to the kitchens, and all of the workers in the palace will know where to find me if you need me. I can give you a proper tour the day after tomorrow, if you'd like."

It was almost jarring, that he was able to act happy again so quickly, it almost seemed disingenuous. Still, I shook it off as me reading into things too much because I was tired. "That'd be very nice, I'd appreciate it Stahl."

His trademark grin was back on his face as he stood up from where he was seated and gave me a short hug, "I'm happy to do it. I'm going to head back to my rooms. You're all set for tonight, right?"

When I assured him that I was, he gave me one last smile before heading off into the night to presumably get some much deserved rest. I saw Stahl to the door and wished him a good night before promptly falling into my bed without changing out of my day clothes, and going into a deep sleep before I could even pull the sheets over me.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

It felt like Freya had been run over by a horse when she woke up. The sun was just starting to peak into her windows, and she could hear some distant shouts from what she assumed to be the tiltyard.

Water was the first thing on her mind, and Freya was quick to consume half of the pitcher left out for her before she began to plan out what needed to be done today. Freya grabbed a scrap of paper and a quill, intent on writing out a list of the most pressing matters to get to today.

 _To-Do_

 _Water and tend to plants_

 _Learn my way around the castle_

 _Find out what standing orders I'll need to fill_

 _Find the kitchens_

None of these seemed to be especially hard things to do, especially watering

the plants and finding the kitchens, though she had a feeling that learning which orders people had for potions and tonics to be filled regularly would be hard to do. After all, if everything from the Apothecary before her had been taken in as evidence, then that would mean Freya would have to acquire the information by either asking around for everyone that had regular orders, or go the easier route and ask for the papers from whoever was in charge of the investigation currently.

The latter was probably the easiest, though she wasn't very excited about it. Still, having his notes would benefit her in more ways than one, and there was a fair chance she could learn some things from what he'd written, which wasn't a chance that Freya was about to give up.

As she predicted, watering and tending to the plants was the easiest thing on her list, with finding the kitchens a very close second. Getting food was a bit harder—it seemed that she'd come in right after breakfast had been sent out to the nobles, and everyone seemed to be scrambling to clean and prep for lunch. Finally, the head cook saw her looking lost in the doorway and had been kind enough to put together a small plate of leftovers, and find Freya a quiet place to sit with some of the other castle workers.

There wasn't much talking amongst the servants, most were cramming food down their mouths quickly to presumably go and do their work, which gave her a good bit of time to sit down and reflect.

All of this came to be because Stahl decided one day to become a Sheppard. Why he chose to do that was still a mystery to her. She could remember the week before his choice like it was yesterday, even though Freya almost didn't want to.

Their village was a very small one, subject to raiding because of this, and the fact that it was close to the Plegian border certainly didn't help. She was ten years old, and had been going about her chores with Evert. Their homes were right next to each other, and their parents were quite close. Freya's mother and father were farmers, and grew a rather sizable patch of medicinal herbs that they sold to supplement their income. The Bauer's gave their neighbors, the Kerner's, first pick of the herbs in exchange for a cheaper price on whatever potions or medicines that they might need.

Evert and Freya were weeding the herb patch when the warning bell began to ring, just seconds before the screaming began to sound out. She instinctively looked around for her parents, and felt her throat clench up when she couldn't catch sight of them. Quicker to react than Freya was, Evert grabbed her hand and dragged her into his home and led Freya up to the attic, to a hidden nook where they wouldn't be seen unless the room was searched thoroughly. Stahl came pounding up the stairs after them, hardly able to squeeze in. It took her a second to notice the large butcher knife in his hand. "Stahl! What are you—"

"Shhh" he put his finger to his lips, and postured himself in a defensive position, crouched and ready to charge at whoever may come into the attic after their trio. It took Freya many years after to realize that the way Stahl was positioned meant that anyone coming up the attic would have seen him automatically, and that he'd given up the opportunity to hide to protect Freya and Evert.

Freya couldn't tell how long they were in there. All she could tell anyone is that she could hardly hear the screams over how hard her heart was beating, that Evert's eyes were filled with silent tears, and that Stahl's hands were shaking as he gripped the knife.

The noise slowly began to die down, and as her heart began to slow she could hear the raiders ride off into the distance, presumably having robbed enough of the homes of their goods and were satisfied, or realized that the village was too poor to have enough that they could take. Adelbert burst through the front door of the home, his voice raw with panic as he called out for his children. Stahl dropped the knife, relief practically oozing out of him from the fact that he didn't have to use it. Both boys stormed downstairs and hugged their father, while Freya was quick to fly out the door and run home to find her parents.

They weren't there.

She checked the temple, hoping they'd found sanctuary there and instead was greeted by a pile of bodies. Freya lost her breakfast at the sight, and stumbled away feeling so panicked that her extremities began to go numb. The sounds around her began to melt away as she sprinted back to the farm, hardly noticing the fact that all of her family's animals were either gone, killed, or set loose. She saw a crowd of neighbors in the corner of the field, and hoped beyond hope that her parents were there and griping about the lost livestock.

As Freya got near she saw Stahl's mother, Eva, look at her with tears in her eyes. Eva stopped Freya from getting any closer, and the group of villagers were standing in such a way to keep the child from seeing something on the ground. "You don't want to see this, dear."

Freya's knees buckled as her legs gave out, and Eva practically dragged the girl back to her home. She couldn't remember much else after that, other than Stahl vacating his bed to give her a place to sleep, and both Eva and Adelbert assuring Freya that they'd take her in.

There was a strange comfort in it all, that so many in the village were going through what she had gone through, along with her. The funerals were all held in one day, and that night Adelbert declared that he was taking Freya on as an apprentice, and put her straight to work. At the time she didn't question it, despite the tragedy that had happened Freya knew that they all had to keep working to survive. Looking back on it now, she realized that Adelbert, in his own way, was trying to keep her mind off of what had happened by putting Freya to work on something she was interested in.

Just a week later, a young man with brown hair and light blue armor rode through the town, a knight about seven days late to be of any use. Freya brushed him off when he introduced himself as Fredrick, a knight with the Shepherds, and tugged on Evert's arm to follow her and get to work on the chores. She didn't notice the fact that Stahl stayed behind until later, and was extremely surprised when they returned later that night to find that Stahl had taken all of his belongings, and gone off to be a soldier.

Between that day and now, Freya had only seen Stahl a handful of times. He came to visit when the war had ended, and wrote frequently to his family, but they didn't see him much. She suspected there was too much hurt all around. His parents weren't happy that he'd become a soldier, Evert resented the sudden responsibility that came with Stahl's change in career, and while Freya didn't hold it against him, they weren't very close in the first place.

She shook herself out of her thoughts, and back to the present. Freya needed to get to work, and find the man who was in charge of the investigation currently to get the list of people with steady orders.

The last to leave, she thanked the head cook for the food, and then began to make her way through the castle. Immediately Freya wished that she had dressed nicer—she stuck out like a sore thumb. She should have gotten Stahl to be more specific about where things were, a few people gave her curious looks, Freya had a feeling that most workers knew back ways to get around instead of the main halls.

"Halt!" she turned around, and saw a vaguely familiar face approach her. He was a rather tall man, with neatly combed hair and a certain uprightness in his posture that only came with years of military experience. "What are you doing so close to the Exalt's chambers? Petitioners aren't being allowed in right now."

The distrust in his voice made her wish even more that she'd dressed nicer—Freya had worn her typical work clothes, not dirty or ragged by any means, but things that were easy to clean if they got dirty and cheap to replace if they got burnt. In her village they would have been considered quite nice, a pale blue top with a brown quilted doublet, along with some thick tan pants and her cleanest boots. In her village, this would have been considered nice enough to attend a wedding.

Here, compared to everyone else, it just made her look like a peasant.

Regardless, she forced herself to smile, and not to show her nervousness. "I'm the new apothecary, I'm trying to find away around the castle so I won't get lost." He seemed to relax the slightest bit at that, though it was a bit hard to tell. "I'm also looking for a man named Frederick, I think he might have the notes from the last apothecary, which I'll need."

His gruff tone didn't change, but he did seem to become less aggressive after Freya had spoken, which was greatly appreciated on the young woman's end. She doubted that anyone would attack her next to what was apparently the Exalt's chambers, but he was a rather large soldier and she was a relatively small civilian. "That would be me you're looking for then, come along and I'll give you the notes."

Where she knew him from suddenly came back to her—he was the man who'd come to the village to recruit soldiers. Freya resisted the urge to scowl at this recognition, he was just doing his job then, as he was right now, and it would be unfair for her to let Evert's opinion of the man who 'took' his brother away sway her opinion of a perfect stranger. As she followed Frederick through the castle, Freya found her mind settling back on that day twelve years ago, when they came back home and found out that Stahl was long gone with no plan to return.

She'd always considered him mild mannered, especially compared to his hot tempered brother, and while they were never very close, that was so out of character for Stahl that it constantly stuck out like a sore thumb in her mind. She knew it weighed heavily on Evert, even after all of these years, and Freya wanted some sort of answer for herself and for her closest friend.

Freya would have to ask Stahl about it eventually, though something in her gut said that it was too soon for such a serious conversation. Still, she hoped that answers would come soon.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Freya had only known Frederick for about five minutes, and already she got the sense that he wasn't the most sociable person in the world. The pace that he kept was quick as they made their way through the maze of the palace, though that was easily because his legs were quite a bit longer than Freya's happened to be. Not surprising, given the fact that he was about a head taller than she was. Freya ended up almost jogging beside him to keep up the pace, feeling uncomfortable at the silence and the odd looks she was getting as they made their way through the palace.

She piped up with the first comment that came to her mind, "You and I actually met, a while ago." He glanced backwards, an eyebrow raised as he tried to figure out if he remembered the young woman beside him. "Well sort of, you came to our village asking for people to join the army, you and I never spoke."

Frederick shook his head the smallest bit, which Freya took to mean that he didn't remember her, though he did end up slowing his pace just a bit so she was no longer jogging alongside him. "I don't remember you, but I remember that day. Stahl was the only one who was interested in joining me." That didn't surprise Freya, most of the villagers were angry when Frederick showed up. What was the point in an army or a knight when they showed up a week after the massacre took place? A soldier was useless if he wasn't there at the right time.

Freya wasn't going to say that, however.

"I remember that he was the only one to leave." Freya paused in her walking for a moment to look around as the palace interior changed from incredibly opulent to more and more practical. Soon enough she burst forward to keep pace with Frederick. It seemed that they were approaching the part of the palace where people worked and the less noble gentry stayed when they visited. A question popped into Freya's mind as she focused back on the topic at hand, though she wasn't sure if Frederick would have the answer for her. "Would you happen to know why Stahl left? He never really told us why."

They arrived in what Freya presumed to be Frederick's office, an unitalitarian room with little decoration and furnishing aside from a desk, a desk chair, and a table with what appeared to be many reports written with such a rushed handwriting Freya wasn't sure they could be deciphered without close examination. What surprised her the most was the bookshelves that lined the walls, each one filled to the brim with texts and books. Back in the village where she grew up, books were rather rare, they were extremely expensive. Even Adelbert, a well to do apothecary only had half a dozen books in his collection.

Freya found her arms soon filled with a large stack of journals and sheaths of parchment, almost high enough to block out her line of sight. She struggled a bit with this sudden added weight, distracted enough that she almost didn't catch Frederick's response to her question, "With all due respect—" he paused, looking down at her as he realized something, "I apologize, I do not believe I know your name."

"No, no—I forgot to introduce myself." Freya blanched internally, obviously she needed to start showing better manners here in the palace. This was a fancy place, not the village where she grew up where everyone knew everyone. She needed to introduce herself when she met new people. "My name is Freya Bauer."

His eyebrows raised for a moment, in which Freya assumed he made a mental note of this fact before he continued, "With all due respect Miss Bauer, I'm not comfortable discussing something that Stahl hasn't felt the need to tell you himself." She was quick to nod, that was certainly fair and she didn't find herself surprised in the slightest. Frederick seemed like the upstanding kind of man who wouldn't want to disclose someone's secrets. "Do you know how to get back to the servants building?"

The question threw Freya off, as she had been so distracted by her surroundings that she hadn't bothered to keep track of what turns and twists they had been taking. "Ah—no, I'm sorry."

"That's not a problem! I can take you back!" a woman's chirpy voice sounded out from behind Freya, and she turned around as fast as she could without dropping her newly acquired information. "You're the new apothecary right? I needed to speak with you anyways. I'm not sure if my husband or Stahl described all your duties yet." Freya's brow crinkled at the sight of this bright and cheery blonde woman, not sure of who she was and what she needed to speak with Freya about.

"Thank you very much ma'am." She probably could have gone without calling the well dressed stranger that since she seemed about Freya's age, if not slightly older, but Freya didn't want to take any chances. The apothecary glanced backwards at Frederick, surprised that someone who came off as so warm. Though, it wasn't as if Freya could say that she knew him well in the very least, so it was probably something that made more sense if you came to know them.

Certainly he seemed to soften at the sight of this woman. Freya snapped herself back to attention, giving this kindly stranger the brightest smile she could muster. "I'm Freya, it's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too Freya! I'm Lissa, I'm the castle's head healer and doctor, so you and I will be working very closely." Freya let out a sigh of relief, it was good to know the person she would be spending most of her time with in the palace seemed so nice. She would have been lying if she was to say that she hadn't been worried about it.

"Oh! How wonderful! I'm glad we'll have a chance to talk, I know I have a week to settle in, but I'd like to get started finding out who's conditions need their medicines immediately." Freya thanked Lissa as she took several of the notebooks and folios out of her hands, and said goodbye to Frederick as the two women walked out of his office and back towards the apothecary tower. Her brow crinkled as a thought came to her, "Isn't one of the princesses named Lissa as well?"

Lissa laughed as she navigated through the palace with the kind of ease that only came with living there your entire life. "I am the Princess." She flashed Freya a smile while Freya's mind immediately began to race trying to figure out how to bow without dropping all the books she was holding. "Don't bother with any formalities, Sully told me you'd be worried about that."

Somehow knowing that Freya's leaning towards proper etiquette had been discussed amongst the royals wasn't an entirely comforting thing. Still, Freya bushed that out of her mind the best she could. "Well then, Miss—" her attempt at good manners was punctuated by Lissa shooting me an amused smile. "Pardon me then, Lissa. Is there anyone that I should know about that needs me to start making elixer's and potions for immediately?"

"There's a few of them, but I would say that the most urgent would probably be Chrom… he's developed a bit of a difficulty sleeping, so he'll need a draught to help with that. The last apothecary made an alright one, but I don't think draughts were his specialty, because Chrom still has trouble with it."

Freya nodded, immediately thinking about which herbs would be best. The trick with sleeping draughts was making them strong enough that it helped someone sleep, without making them so strong that the patient became dependent on them. The long term goal was to get the patient back to sleeping without the draught. If the least apothecary wasn't good at it, Freya would probably have to stick to her own recipe. Valerian root, passionflower, lavender, and chamomile made into a tea of her own making ought to do the trick. "Is there anyone else that needs a sleeping drought?" they were easy enough to make, Freya could pound out a month's worth of tea for at least a dozen people that night if the plants needed in her greenhouse were all there.

"A few more, insomnia is the most common problem here. I'll help you work through the list that Frederick gave you." As Freya gave her a thankful smile, Lissa trudged on through the hallways, with a bright smile as she reflected on which patients needed help first, "There's a need for pain relieving potions as well, n one is really prescribed it, but with so many knights and so much sparring…" she let out a laugh as she shrugged, "It's good to always have some on hand."

Again, that was an easy enough potion. Freya was tempted to simply switch to her own recipe that she had learned, but thinking it over, it was probably a better idea to look at the old recipe and see if there was anything she could learn from it. Though, as she adjusted the books in her hands, there was probably a lot she could learn from the poor man's notes.

"Is there anyone else that needs something that I should start now?" they left the main building of the palace, and finally Freya began to recognize things as they made their way to the servants quarters where her tower was.

Lissa was silent for a moment as she thought, before finally speaking, "Well, just Stahl I would think—he needs something to settle his stomach." That didn't really surprise Freya, while Stahl hadn't mentioned a need for it, she knew that Evert had a pretty severe stomach problem that needed medication as well.

"That's good to know—" Freya jimmied the door open the best she could while still holding the books, backing into it to hold it open for Lissa. "I'm glad I've got you here to explain these to me, it'll make things a lot easier." She dropped the books down onto her table and began to sort through them. Even though there were quite a few, Freya hoped that having Lissa there with her would make things go faster.

Four hours later, with Freya's notebook filled about halfway through with lists of patients and recipes for each of them, Freya felt very differently. It must have been obvious to Lissa that she was feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of this information, because she began to close several of the books and gave Freya an encouraging smile. "How about we get to the rest later? You've already got the list of the patients with the most immediate needs, you can just start with that. You've still got five more days before you need to pick up everything full time."

The apothecary nodded, massaging her temples. "That sounds like a good idea…" she allowed her voice to trail off as she looked back, realizing that it was incredibly naïve of her to assume that her workload would be the same as Adelbert's back in her home village. There were easily four or five times more people that lived in the palace grounds compared to back home. Naturally demands for potions and medicine would be higher. It was probably something she should have thought about at this point.

Regardless of this discouraging realization, Freya had to hand it to Lissa. She wasn't sure if it was how the princess carried herself, or if it was simply a personality trait, but Lissa was quite skilled at lifting people's moods. She seemed to have some sort of energy that made you want to be friends with her. Whatever it was, Freya found herself smiling despite the exhaustion she felt as she led the healer out of her home, and was excited to see her new friend soon.

Once Lissa had left, Freya realized just how starving she was. She hadn't eaten since breakfast, and now it was starting to get dark outside. There wasn't any food in the tower, unless you counted the more edible plants. However, a mouthful of flowers and garlic didn't sound very appetizing. If Stahl's advice about the availability of help in the kitchens was correct, then everyone there would be too busy feeding the nobles to help the servants for another few hours. Freya clicked her tongue against the back of her teeth, and made a mental note to go out in town and get herself some food that would last a few days so she wouldn't be so reliant on the kitchen.

For the moment, there wasn't anything Freya could do. Instead, she focused on starting her work. The sleeping draught was the easiest by far—essentially all she had to do was dry all the plants involved, dice them up, and brew a very large and very strong batch of tea. It was a bit nerve wracking—Lissa had mentioned that the past apothecary's draught wasn't terribly effective, and Freya didn't want the Exalt's first example of her work to be something that wasn't effective for him.

Freya was on the second floor, carefully arranging the ingredients in the rudimentary oven she possessed, trying to achieve the balance between hot enough to dry out the plants but not hot enough to burn them into a crisp. However, a familiar voice rang out into the tower like a bell, shaking Freya's focus from the task at hand.

"Already starting work?" Freya flinched, and in turn pushed several coals hard enough to send embers flying. She felt particularly ungraceful as she landed hard on her ass as she fell backwards from her crouched position. Though, she was happy she hadn't put the herbs in yet. The apothecary shot a frown over her shoulder, her wrists and forearms stinging from the flecks of flames that had singed her. No lasting harm done, but Freya was certain she had a bit less arm hair than before. Stahl had the manners to choke down his laughter the best he could, "Sorry, I thought you heard me coming in and climbing up the ladder."

With a small sigh, Freya stood up, dusting herself off and tried to feel happy that her sleeves hadn't caught on fire. "No, it's alright. No harm done. I spoke to Lissa, she said that there were a few people that needed their medication soon, and I wanted to get a head start." Freya paused, looking around at her ingredients to double check she had what she needed for Stahl's stomach potion before she spoke, "I'm starting with the sleeping draughts, but I was going to get to yours tonight as well."

"Oh, thank you! That's very kind, I know you must have a lot of things that you need to start working on." He flashed Freya a smile, and for a moment she was reminded of Lissa—both she and Stahl had the same sort of infectious personality that made people want to be near them. While she was a bit distracted in her thoughts, Stahl sat down at her work table and shuffled through the notes that crowded surface, "Is there anything that I can help you with? I know it's been a while, but I still remember most everything that my father taught me.

Freya sat down as well, hoping that if she let the oven cool for a short while it would reach the correct temperature for drying out herbs. There wasn't much that Stahl could help her out with for now, not unless he wished to spend the entire night here with her working, and Freya certainly didn't feel comfortable asking him for that.

Still, his comment about the training he received from Adelbert reminded her of the question she had posed to Frederick earlier that morning. Why had Stahl left? She hadn't received an answer then, but perhaps asking Stahl himself would finally answer the question, "I don't think you can help me, but I do have a question for you. Why did you join the Shepherds?"

For a few moments, Stahl simply looked surprised. Not shocking, seeing as Freya hadn't given him warning. However, his face soon morphed to a good bit of unnerved panic. That took Freya by surprise a bit. Maybe it was naïve of her to assume so, but she had thought that the answer would be something simple, not something that would make Stahl look like she'd slapped him across the face.

Stahl shifted in his chair, visibly uncomfortable while Freya waited for an answer. Soon, the shocked look left his face and was replaced by what Freya was starting to see as a false mask of happiness. "Have you been given a proper tour around the castle grounds?"

It was Freya's turn now to be surprised. She hadn't thought it in Stahl's character to blatantly change the subject like that. "No? But I don't see what that has to do with anything—"

"Let me show you around tomorrow. There's a lot more to this place than just the castle, there's miles and miles of forest as well. I can even teach you how to ride a horse, if you're not still afraid of them." He leant back in his chair, seemingly comfortable now that the subject had been changed. Freya wasn't sure how to react really, it was almost as if she'd never asked her question.

Still, something he said stuck out to her, and soon she came out of her shock, "I'm not scared of horses!" well, not really—nervous was a better word for it. Though, who wouldn't be when the first time you'd ridden one was just a few days prior?

"I'm sure you aren't." his tone said otherwise, and Stahl let out a laugh before standing up and pushing in his chair. "If you don't need my help I'll leave it to you then." The smile he gave her didn't seem terribly happy, more than anything it seemed like he wanted to get the hell out of dodge. He ruffled Freya's ginger hair and made his way down the ladder before she could stand up. When she did, she heard the door open and his voice boom up to her, "I'll ask the kitchens to send you some dinner! Something good, you need some meat and vegetables, not just bread. I'll see you tomorrow!"

She found herself frozen in her chair, not sure what to do now that he'd left. The easygoing Stahl she remembered from her childhood didn't seem to be there anymore, though the Stahl she saw tonight seemed eager to make sure people though they were the same person.

It took a while for Freya to pull herself out of her thoughts. She checked the oven's temperature, put in the herbs that needed to be dried, and then sat herself down at her desk to pen a letter to Evert. While he certainly wasn't his brother's biggest fan, she needed someone to talk to about all of this, and her oldest friend seemed like the best choice.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Freya awoke the next morning with a pounding headache, and only bothered to roll out of bed after realizing that Stahl would be over soon, and she couldn't very well stay inside and sleep all day. The long night she had was certainly to blame, Stahl's sudden departure had filled her with a strange sense of forboding that Freya hadn't been able to shake all night. Her only response was to finish the sleeping draughts she had been working on, to start the pain relief potions and the potion Stahl needed for his stomach.

Usually Freya found that working on a potion provided a cathartic release, after all, it was surprisingly intense work, with a lot of time taken up by prepping the plants and herbs and the rest of the time spent brewing them. However, despite after all the work she had put in the night prior, her mind still raced throughout the night, as made evident by the letter atop her desk.

 _Dear Evert,_

 _Things here are different than expected. Don't get me wrong, I'm still very grateful about the opportunity, and so far everyone that I've met has been wonderfully friendly to me. The woman who is the head of the doctors and healers in the palace, and is my closest associate, is the Princess Lissa! I've even met the Queen Sully! She helped me move in, actually. The royals here are surprisingly laid back—all that your mother taught us about manners doesn't seem to be very applicable yet. No one that I've met cares if I can bow correctly, they want to know if I can work well enough for this place._

 _Hopefully, I'll be able to meet their standards. I'm brewing a new batch of sleeping draught as I'm writing this. The past Apothecary didn't have a very good recipe, apparently, because his left the patients both weary and dependent on it. Your father would have had a few choice words for him, I'm sure._

 _What is most concerning to me though is your brother. He's been perfectly polite, do not get me wrong, but he's different than when we were children. I asked him tonight why he joined the army, and instead of answering my question he dodged it, asked me to spend time with him tomorrow, and then left. I know how you feel about him, Evert, and I can already hear you telling me that "how he acts doesn't matter" and that you're "not interested in what he's doing" but it was incredibly strange. I'm concerned to tell you the truth, and you're the only one who I know well enough to talk about this._

 _I see him tomorrow, and I hope that this will get sorted out by the time you respond to me._

 _I'm also worried about the workload—I don't officially start for four more days, but already the potions that need to get started immediately are as demanding as the work that I did back home. Looking at the list of patients in the castle that I'll be taking up in less than a week, there is easily four times as many people that I'll be in charge of making medicine for. I can see now why my predecessor didn't have an apprentice, he didn't have the time to train one!_

 _Once I get into the swing of things I'm sure that I'll be able to make it all work, but at the moment I'm still worried about what could go wrong._

 _Please respond quickly, don't procrastinate on it like you do with letters from Stahl. I miss you. Please tell Mister Adelbert and Miss Eva that I miss them as well, and that their letters will be there soon._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Freya Bauer_

She glanced over the contents briefly, before melting the wax and using her official seal of office to press the letter closed. That bit was quite satisfying, Freya thought. Growing up in her tiny village everyone assumed that since their families were so close, and because they had taken Freya in, she'd end up marrying Evert.

That was supposed to be her destiny, a wife of the apothecary, someone who wouldn't rise above the position of a spouse who helped out with the family business. It wasn't a totally unfair assumption, there were only about eight people in the village that were within two years of Evert and Freya's age, and while none were terrible people, Evert and Freya were the ones who were the closest to each other. Between the war and the disease that ran rampant through the countryside, people were pressured to marry early and push out some kids before they got killed somehow.

It had never been a question for Freya and Evert, whether or not they would end up getting married. Even if it was what most people expected from them. Evert was Freya's closest friend, and would probably have been her option in a worst case scenario, but now that she was in the capital city of Ylisstol she had the chance to build a reputation, and couldn't wait to prove her worth. Freya would forever be grateful to Stahl for the recommendation, and she wanted to show that she had been worth the nomination. She wanted to prove that she could rise to be more than a wife of an apothecary, she could be the apothecary of the Exalt. That she could make a name for herself. There wouldn't be a need to settle for the life that her little village would have given her.

Freya took a bite of the now stale bread that had been part of her sparse diner the night before, and washed it down with a swig of lukewarm water that she kept on her desk. The headache she had was starting to finally fade as she crammed nourishment down her throat, though she had the distinct feeling that the headache would be staying with her throughout the day, even if it was to a small degree.

Stahl hadn't mentioned when or where to meet up, but knowing him he'd probably be over in about thirty minutes. According to the water clock that rested atop her work table, it was thirty minutes past nine, which meant that the castle was already abuzz with workers, and someone like Stahl who was used to waking up early to train and work had probably been awake since dawn.

She had been so tired the night before that when she finally went to sleep about three hours after midnight, she hadn't bothered to change out of her work clothes from the day before. Her sheets would have to be changed, upon further inspection. The soot and grime from yesterday had made their way onto her bedding. The corner of Freya's lip twitched downward, the idea of having someone else clean her sheets for her seemed strange, but given the fact that she had no way of washing them herself, it would seem she'd have to ask one of the servants to take care of it. Perhaps Stahl would have some insight.

Part of her was glad that Mister Adelbert and Miss Eva weren't there with her, both would have been very disappointed at this gross negligence of hygiene that she'd shown.

Regardless, Freya shed her old clothes and washed up as quickly as she could manage before donning her fresh clothes. She wasn't dressed as fancy as most of the other tradesmen in the palace would be on that day. Freya was still too new the profession to have enough money to buy a new wardrobe to fit in with the nicely dressed people that lived there, and if she was to be frank with herself, she didn't particularly care to. While forgetting to change the night before seemed indicative that she didn't take care of herself, Freya actually took pride in keeping quite clean. Her parents had been farmers, and she'd been prone to digging in the dirt as any child was, but she still always took a bath every night, and kept her clothes tidy as she could.

Twisting her wet hair into a bun, Freya frowned thoughtfully. She had only been riding once before, and couldn't be entirely certain as to what was appropriate wear. She had settled on a thicker pair of pants, along with a warm shirt and a jacket. It was fall, so while it was cool in the morning, there was a chance that soon enough it would be too warm for the jacket. However, the mornings were far too cold for Freya's taste, and she didn't dream of going out without it.

She glanced to her left, still surprised by the sight of a full sized mirror in the corner of my new room. Such a luxury was unheard of back in her home village, and this was one of the first times that Freya was able to see what she actually looked like. Freya turned out to be pretty short, fairly tan from birth and so much time spent outside gardening, with a shock of rust color hair that almost didn't fit with her skin tone. She could see now why Frederick thought yesterday that she was a peasant, while those were some of the nicest clothes she owned, made of a durable cloth that was easy enough to clean and take care of, it was no match for the brightly dyed colors of the nobles she saw all around the palace.

People like herself, who couldn't afford the high cost of brightly dyed fabric tended to stray towards more muted colors. The village she'd called home had seemed to be a symphony of pastels, greys, and browns.

Turning away from the mirror, Freya made a mental note to save up for at least once nicer set of clothes in case there was an occasion where she would have to dress up. It probably wouldn't happen anytime soon, but it couldn't hurt. As she tugged on her boots, Stahl burst through her door almost on cue, a bright grin on his face. "Good morning Freya! Are you ready to go? I think you'll like the place I have in mind."

While it seemed like his strange behavior from the last night was completely gone, Freya felt herself stay on edge as she waited for it to resurface. Shaking the feeling off, she flashed him the brightest smile she was able to conjure. "I am! I'd like to drop off a letter first, I've written to Evert and I'd like to send it out today if that's still possible." She hadn't the foggiest idea of where the courier may or may not be, and how she should find him. Stahl ought to have some sort of idea though.

Stahl continued to smile, "Oh that'll be easy—the mail courier doesn't typically leave until about noon unless there's something important. We'll be going to the stables anyways, so you can just drop it off with him before we leave."

Her mouth twitched—he'd said something to day before about riding horses today but Freya hadn't thought that he was serious. Immediately he noticed her discomfort and wrapped an arm around the young woman as he led Freya out of her home and towards the stables. "Don't worry, you'll be with the most reliable training horse we have, and if you're uncomfortable on her for even a moment you can just ride pillion with me, or we can walk there."

Freya couldn't think of a response for a few moments, distracted by the sudden close contact. While Evert was Stahl's brother and her best friend, the two were as different as night and day, and she wasn't used to being held or embraced like this. As quick as she could she nodded, "Alright—that sounds good to me." When Stahl had said on the trip there that she was afraid of horses, he hadn't been wrong. Though that wasn't something that Freya was about to admit out loud, even if Stahl knew it to be true.

Regardless, it was something that she wanted to get over—this wasn't the village she grew up in where the farthest thing was a fifteen minute walk away, this was the capitol, Freya couldn't walk everywhere that she went.

Soon enough we were in the stables, and she was handing over the letter and telling the courier where to go. Freya glanced away for a moment, taking in her surroundings and caught Stahl handing the courier a small handful of coins and thanking the man for taking priority with her letter since the village it was headed towards was so close by.

Freya couldn't hide the confusion from my face as Stahl led her away, "Was I supposed to pay him?" when Stahl shook his head and chuckled at her question she noted the appearance of the 'new' Stahl, someone who was more savvy about the runnings of the castle and willing to bribe others, a trait that certainly not around before he had left the village. "So you bribed him?"

"I wouldn't call it a 'bribe'. It's common practice—if you want your letter to be delivered that day, you tip the courier. It's also good practice to tip the stable boys too, they'll be more keen to give you the better horses that way." He walked a few steps ahead of her, able to navigate the stables when she couldn't. Freya tried to keep a poker face on in case he looked back towards her, and not let on to the fact that to herself, the difference between 'tip' and 'bribe' seemed very minimal.

With a deep breath, Freya tried her best to calm her thoughts. She'd been very lucky to be raised by Adelbert and Eva, but they had been quite morally upright, almost to a fault. Maybe this was something that was considered normal here, and she was overreacting? Before she could think more about it, Stahl stopped in front of a chestnut horse's stall and flashed Freya a grin, "This here is Maple, she'll be your horse for the day."

Immediately, she felt less nervous. The horse Stahl had come to pick her up in had been an incredibly huge thing, a warhorse Freya was sure. A giant beast with a grey coat that looked like it could squish her with one hoof if it so chose. The one Stahl had brought her too seemed to be a more average sized one, Freya's guess was a palfrey of some kind. Those were usually the ones that people were trained on, or so she had heard.

Soon enough she found herself being lifted onto Maple, and was feeling just a bit more secure in this situation than she was before. Unlike Stahl's horse that they had ridden in on, Maple didn't seem the least bit phased to have a new passenger on her back. Instead, she stayed steady until Stahl hopped on his horse and began to lead the way. Immediately, Maple began a slow and steady walk without any prodding from Freya, and was able to keep pace with Stahl's horse so they were riding side by side.

Freya's hands fluttered for a moment, unsure of where to rest. It seemed unnecessary to hold the reins, but if Maple decided to run off suddenly, Freya would be unable to pull back for her to stop.

Stahl seemed to notice my inability to choose, and laughed once more at her inexperience. "Hold the reins, you can rest your hands on the pommel."

"The pommel?" the redhead looked down at the saddle, setting her sights on what appeared to be some knob like protrusion at the front. She placed her hands there and focused on other things—not wanting to scare the horse with any fear that might arise from her overthinking the situation and becoming distressed. Again, she had no experience with horses up until very recently, but she had always heard about horses sensing their rider's emotions and becoming distressed or nervous when the person on them felt the same. The last thing Freya needed at the moment was a nervous horse ready to bolt off.

She looked around at the forest they were passing through, and was immediately surprised. Sure, this property belonged to the Exalt and was going to be well kept no matter what the season, but their surroundings were incredibly beautiful. All the trees had emerald colored leaves and the shade they provided somehow seemed to enhance the colors of the other plants around us. "This is very beautiful—thank you for taking me here."

"I'm happy to! I have a feeling this will be one of your last free days in a while, and I wanted to show you out to a good time." That was the Stahl that she knew from her childhood speaking, and for the moment, it seemed as if the other Stahl wouldn't make an appearance.

For the moment she found herself quite distracted, with the scenery and what sounded like a river nearby that she couldn't quite see yet. Freya almost missed Stahl speaking again, in a quieter voice that didn't have much of his expected cheer. "About what you asked me yesterday…" once she realized what he was saying, Freya's head snapped towards him fast enough to send a small jolt of pain down her spine. Freya's hand rubbed the back of her neck, as she waited for Stahl to speak again.

He looked uncomfortable, just like he did the other night— the only difference was that this time he wasn't running for his life. "I don't like talking about why I joined the Shepherds, but that doesn't really excuse running away like that, that was pretty rude of me."

Stahl was definitely Adelbert and Eva's son, someone who was raised with a very rigid understanding of what was rude and what was polite. She couldn't help but think that they would be proud of their son, happy that over a decade after he left their home, he still kept those values they worked so hard to instill. He fell silent for a moment, face screwed up as he considered his words before finally speaking, "I joined the Shepherds because after the attack on our village, I realized that I couldn't really protect the people I loved as I was. So when Frederick came by a week later, I joined so that I could become strong enough to protect my family."

Later, she would find out that he wasn't telling me the full truth, but for the time, Freya accepted his words as fact without a second thought. For a moment she found herself not able to think of a proper response, and looked around the lush green forest around them for some sort of inspiration before speaking lamely, "That makes sense."

The silence that fell around them was as loud as could be—as she struggled to think of how to continue the conversation while Stahl still felt like being open about things. "Why don't you like talking about this?" it was the first thing Freya thought of, the only thing that didn't quite make sense to her. "That's a very honorable thing, to join to protect your family."

"Just because something is honorable doesn't mean that it's good." Freya's face screwed up in confusion as she looked at her riding companion. It seemed that he was back to speaking in riddles, and they were back to square one.

They came to a fork in the road, and Stahl steered his horse to the left as Maple dutifully followed with no effort on Freya's part. "I think I'm going to need you to speak plainer Stahl." Her tone was flatter than intended, a little bit more harsh than needed, but she was starting to get annoyed with all of this. People at the palace didn't seem to say what they actually meant. Things were padded with extra flowery words for some reason. Back home, at the village she grew up in, people spoke plainly, and she didn't understand why people didn't do so in the capital as well. It certainly would have made things much easier.

She could see his jaw clench for a moment as he ground his teeth, and noted the fact that Stahl seemed to refuse to look directly at her, instead focusing on the air in front of him. "I don't regret joining the Shepherds, I wasn't meant to be an apothecary and take over after father. But that doesn't mean I like talking about the war or the violence that was happening around the country when I joined."

Well that was certainly plainer. Stahl finally looked towards Freya, with an expression on his face that was somewhere between pleading and frustrated. She felt very out of her element, this wasn't the Stahl she remembered from her childhood, this Stahl was much more serious than the goofy boy she grew up with. For a moment she wondered when this new Stahl took over, before Freya realized that she was being quite unfair. It had been twelve years since Stahl had left. He had grown up since then, gone through a war, and had fought in battles that Freya couldn't imagine. To expect that he would be the same as before was unjust.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pushed you to talk about it." Freya could see his jaw relax a bit at her words, and she wondered if this is what he wanted to come from this excursion, to be seen as he was now, not as he used to be. Stahl took a few deep breaths and appeared to relax, and the air around the two became less and less tense as the moments passed. Freya was able to pay attention to the beautiful surroundings around them and noted the fact that the noise from the unseen river seemed to be getting louder as they rode. "Where are we going, by the way?"

He looked even more relaxed at the change of subject, and the smile returned to his face once more, "We're going to the riverbank. It's very pretty there, I think you'll like it, and there's actually quite a few wild growing medicinal plants growing around there that ought to be helpful to you."

She focused her attention forward, almost surprised that there was a river so close by. The vegetation seemed so lush and crowded around them that the water was nowhere in sight, even though you could hear that it was only a few yards away. "Thank you! That sounds lovely!" the excitement was evident in Freya's voice, while half a days ride away wasn't that big of a distance between their village and the capital, it was enough that the herbs that grew here could be different from her home.

Soon enough they rounded a bend and came to the river. True to his word, there was a large amount of plants crowded around the riverbank. She practically leapt off of the horse to inspect her new findings, much to Stahl's amusement. "Not so scared of horses anymore, huh?"

"They don't scare me—" Freya was given a disbelieving look from Stahl, and she rolled her eyes before looking back at the plants with a smile and a small shrug, "Well, Maple doesn't. " Stahl was quick to kneel beside her and help examine the quality of the plants they were looking at. "I might come back later and take a few of these to replant in my tower—they'd be useful. D'you think that'd be alright?"

He nodded emphatically—if they were to get very technical, everything in this park belonged to the Exalt, and to remove any plants or to kill any animals without a license was akin to stealing. "Chrom won't mind. The last apothecary did the same thing. I'll take you down again in a few days and we can transplant the plants together."

She looked over to him in surprise, "Are you sure? I'm sure you're busy—if you don't have the time I understand."

With that he flashed Freya a grin, "Now that it's peaceful my job isn't actually that bad—I help to train the squires and younger knights. Though, everyone knows that I've got quite a bit of apothecary training under my belt, and since we're friends, me helping you is part of the job." He gave her a small nudge with his elbow, anticipating the response she was going to give, "And you're more fun than training with Frederick, it reminds me of when we were kids. All we need now is for Evert to come up."

The grimace she made from his last statement was involuntary, and Freya wasn't able to cover it up before Stahl noticed. "That's probably not likely to happen, I suppose?" his tone changed from happy to disappointed very quickly, and when she looked towards him the smile had fallen from his face.

"He's just—" well, while he was her dearest friend, there was no denying the fact that Evert was a fairly bitter person over the sudden departure of his brother, and until very recently Stahl had never spoken to anyone about why he'd left beyond vague answers. "He loves you, you're his older brother—you know he used to want to be just like you when we were kids." That brought the smile back to his face a little bit, "I think that you leaving just… changed a lot of things, and he wants an explanation."

That was all a fairly watered down and gentle explanation of how Evert felt, but Freya wasn't about to tell Stahl about the years of snarky comments she'd heard from his brother. Especially when Stahl seemed to become a bit more happy at her words. "That's understandable… I'm sure he'll come up to visit now that you're here, I can talk to him then."

"Yeah! Besides, he knows all you've been doing for him, he always really appreciated you sending ingredients from around the continent while you were serving for the Shepherds! Everything will be fine."

Freya thought briefly to herself that she needed to pen a letter as soon as she got back telling Evert that she got an explanation for his brother's behavior, and that he didn't need to worry or get upset with the letter she'd written that morning. Still, when Stahl pointed out a plant that she'd never seen before and started talking about what it was used for, Freya pushed that thought out of her mind, and decided to worry about it later.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

 _There were many things that Evert didn't like. Waking up early to tend the garden. How quickly gossip got around in a village with less than one hundred people in it. His brother, about half of the time. Now though, he disliked the fact that he was alone, the most. Sure, he still had his parents, and a few friends in the village, but his best friend had left him to take up a job in the capital, and although he wouldn't admit it out loud, he was very lonely._

 _The fact that she'd left and gone off with Stahl was particularly annoying. When a letter from her showed up that night, delivered by a well dressed castle service saying that the message was incredibly urgent and important, Evert did his best to swallow his annoyance for once. It must be important he thought—according to the date on the letter she had penned it that day._

 _Again, it wasn't something he would admit, but deep down he'd been concerned for Stahl when he'd ran off to join the army, and was still worried with so little information coming in from his brother. Freya was no exception, he couldn't help but wonder if she'd be able to handle life all off alone in the capital, running an apothecary by herself. It wasn't a question of ability but rather her training— Evert was the one who'd been given the instruction in running a business since he'd be taking over, not Freya._

 _The anxiety that had formed a pit in his stomach didn't go away when he read her letter. Though, the bit where she mentioned the lack of care when it came to manners made him raise an eyebrow in disbelief._

 _Freya hadn't asked for him to come and visit her, but he couldn't quite shake the feeling that he needed to go. Call it issues with abandonment, call it stubbornness, call it anything you wanted, in Evert's mind Freya had left all too suddenly, and he was not okay with it in the slightest._

 _Evert tapped his foot on the earth floor of the cottage, before folding up the letter and placing it in his pocket. With his resolution steeled, he packed up a sack with clothes and a little bit of food, said farewell to his parents and offered the vague excuse that Freya 'needed him to help get the apothecary started in the first few weeks' and trotted to the town's stables to rent a horse. He'd have to ride through the night, but he'd get there the next morning without any problem._

Things were going well for Freya. Yesterday's outing with Stahl had been both enlightening and fun, and she couldn't deny the warmth in her chest that came whenever she thought of him. It was a new development, and not one that she even thought of all that important quite yet. Unlike the list of patients and medicines that she was working through.

Freya was about two hours into another meeting with Lissa, and they were finally done covering all of the patients that were in the castle. The list of potions that she'd have to make every week seemed staggering, though she'd managed to find a schedule in the notes of her predecessor, and that seemed like it would be a good place to start. "Are you alright with all of this Freya? I know it's a lot to take in."

The smile that came to her lips at Lissa's concern was bright and genuine. This was going to be difficult, Freya wouldn't deny that in the least, but it was a challenge that she was incredibly happy to take on. "I'm alright! I'm actually excited to start—this is a dream come true to tell you the truth. I'm glad I get the chance to show I'm worth my salt, you know?"

Their meeting wrapped up, Freya walked towards her tower with a bright smile on her face, silently planning out the rest of her day and which potions she'd start with first.

At the same time, Evert had finally made his way to the castle stables, also smiling brightly as he dismounted his horse, not letting the exhaustion of having ridden through the night dampen his mood. After a bit of wandering around, he'd somehow found himself in the castle's kitchens. He paused for a moment, tempted to find himself some food but thought better of it and flagged down one of the workers who didn't appear all too busy, "Excuse me ma'am! I'm looking for Freya Bauer, the new apothecary, would you happen to know where she might be?"

"The apothecary? The Apothecary's Tower is in the servant's quarter's, if you leave the kitchens through the gardens and follow the pathway, you'll be able to find it real easy sweetheart." The old woman paused for a moment, squinting at the young man before her, "You look an awful lot like one of the knights here! Do you know a Sir Kerner by any chance?"

Evert let out a chuckle, running a hand through his already messy hair, it was so strange to hear his brother referred to so formally, "He's actually my big brother! I came to visit him and Miss Bauer, we all grew up together." He gave the cook a small bow, using the sort of courtly manners that his mother would have been happy to see. Even if Freya said that the people here didn't care about them. "Thank you so much for your help ma'am, please have a good day." With that he exited the kitchens and headed towards the tower, as the cook mentioned to one of the other workers that Sir Kerner's brother was quite the polite young man.

When he made it to the tower, Evert took off his boots and placed them neatly next to the door. Freya's new lodgings seemed quite nice, albeit small. As tempted as he was to simply climb into her bed and fall asleep, he had a feeling that it wouldn't be the most proper thing to do since Freya didn't appear to be here at the moment, and especially since he was filthy after riding for so long. Instead, he opted to grab the last half of a loaf of bread and eat his first meal of the day, all the while taking stock of his surroundings.

The first thing Freya noticed when she walked in was that there were a pair of boots at the door that were not hers. The next was that a weary looking Evert was chewing at a stale piece of bread while he looked around her chambers. "Evert? What in the world are you doing here?"

The bright smile was back on his face at the sight of his closest friend, "Freya! You seemed so worried in your letter, I came to visit and make sure you were alright." Not quite the truth, but Evert would be sticking to that story for the moment. It seemed more dignified than admitting he'd been lonely without her or Stahl, and had used her letter as an excuse to come up.

"I'm fine—I sent that yesterday morning, you must have been riding all night." It didn't take much to put two and two together, no person would ride all through the night for such a trivial reason. "Why are you really here? What's wrong?"

Evert finished the last of the bread, and shrugged, "Nothing's wrong—it's like I said, you seemed upset in your letter, so I came over." Quick to change the subject, Evert shook his hair loose from its ponytail and shrugged off his cloak. "Would you happen to know where I can get a bath? I'm disgusting from riding and want to get cleaned off before sleeping."

Just like his brother, Freya thought, so quick to change the subject. "I'll call for the servant's to bring the water for a bath." She frowned as she looked around the layout of her living quarters, there weren't any walls to separate or give privacy, with the exception of the small water closet. With a small click of her tongue, Freya set her sights on her tiny kitchen tucked away in the corner, "I'll have them set up a privacy screen in the kitchen as well… where are you going to stay while you're here?"

"I thought I'd stay with you." The look on Freya's face seemed less than pleased at this idea, and as she walked away with a roll of her eyes to ask a servant to bring in some hot water, he looked around the tiny chambers, knowing full and well that his mother would have a fit if she found out that they shared the space. It was one thing to share a room when they lived under the watchful eyes of his parents, but another to be totally alone and share a room. Eyeing the staircase as Freya walked back in, "I can sleep upstairs, if that's better. Is that a spare room?"

"It's my workroom." Having him on a different floor would at least be a little more proper, though it still wasn't ideal. "Can't you just stay with Stahl? I know he'd be glad to see you."

The grimace on Evert's face gave her enough of an answer, though she didn't like it. Evert fiddled with a stray lock of his hair, finding himself not ready to face his brother. Deep down Evert loved his brother, but he knew full and well that whenever he was around Stahl he reverted back to the child he'd been when his brother had left, "If you're really uncomfortable with me staying with you I'll bunk with Stahl, but truthfully I'd rather not."

"Fine—" Freya let out a small huff, she wasn't going to force him to after all, and for about the past decade they'd lived together anyways. " _But_ , you're going to be helping me with my work while you're here, got it?"

Grinning as wide as he could, Evert nodded emphatically "Of course! It'll be like it was when we were training together!" he paused for a beat, thinking for a bit before continuing, "Well, Dad won't be here to tell us we're doing it all wrong, but it'll be close enough."

Freya stifled a laugh as the servants came in with the large tin washbin that served as the tub, and rushed to help set it down in the kitchen and fill it up with the warm water they were bringing in with buckets. With Evert's help everything got set up quickly, and once the privacy screen was set up to block off the small kitchen with Evert behind it, Freya worked on tidying the workroom's floor so she could set up a cot for Evert.

Once her work was done, and the cot had been set up she trudged back downstairs, "So how are you planning to handle everything with Stahl?" the groan from behind the privacy screen was a frustrated one, the kind Evert only gave her when she was being particularly stubborn about getting some sort of information. "I'm letting you live with me for as long as it takes for you to work out whatever this—" Freya's hand moved in a sharp, annoyed gesture that she knew Evert wouldn't be able to see, "Is. You can at least tell me what your plan is."

"I don't have a plan. It's not my job to have a plan." Evert scowled as hard as he could at the privacy screen, and didn't try to hide the bitterness in his voice. "He's the one who left, he's the one who ought to be coming up with a plan."

Well, at least he was being reasonable about all of this, Freya thought with a roll of her eyes. "I don't mean like making up with him. I mean how you're going to behave when he's around. If you're going to be picking a fight with him the whole time you're here—" her voice raised sharply to drown out the protest coming from the other side of the screen, " I want to know about it! I know you're mad, you've got a right to be mad, but I don't want to get caught in the middle of a screaming match without any warning."

There was a slosh of water accompanied by a softly muttered string of curse words as Evert stepped out of the washbin. "Throw me my towel and my clothes."

Freya wondered briefly if changing topics was some sort of family trait that had been passed down to the two brothers, before wadding up Evert's clothes in a towel and hurling it over the privacy screen. Judging by the metal clang that greeted her ears, Evert's clothes were currently atop her tea kettle. "That wasn't even _close_ to where I am."

"What do you expect me to do? Pass it to you?" Freya let out a sigh and perched herself atop an end table in her tiny den, facing the privacy screen with a frown. "Do you think you'll be alright around him?"

The scowl on Evert's face was becoming more and more pronounced as time passed, he didn't like talking about this, and didn't appreciate Freya's insistence towards the topic. Though he couldn't say he was surprised it was happening. "I'll be alright. Don't worry 'bout me." There was a beat of silence before he continued, in a much softer voice, "I don't want to spend too much time with him though, if you don't mind."

Freya wasn't surprised, though she was disappointed. "Well, I start work officially in two days, so you don't have to worry about that." She was half tempted to bring up the fact that Stahl wanted to reconcile with his brother, but Freya she had a feeling that stepping in between the two would do more damage than good. Her frown was quite large by the time Evert came out from behind the privacy screen, though Evert didn't look any happier than she did at that point. Finding a change of topic seemed almost impossible, and the argument between brothers that Freya knew would be coming any day now seemed to loom over the room with an oppressive silence she didn't know how to break.

Thankfully, like his brother, Evert Kerner was quite skilled when it came to avoiding uncomfortable topics of conversation. He simply forced a smile on his face, tied his wet hair up into a ponytail, and shoved an inordinate amount of enthusiasm into his voice as he spoke, "So! Where should we start with our work?"


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

As much as she disliked the sudden intrusion upon her new home, Freya had to admit that it was nice having Evert back around. It was like the ratty old blanket children would carry to comfort themselves. It probably wasn't the best, but it was comforting nonetheless.

"Hells bells Freya—How are you expecting to start up shop with almost nothing prepared?"

Evert in this case was a very snarky blanket.

Freya rolled her eyes and tossed another bundle of lady's mantle at him, "Just chop this." His words didn't do much to quell the nerves that had been bundled in her stomach for the past few days. "I've got the most common potions sorted out so far, I just need your help with the rest." Evert was smart enough to hold the smartass comment that came to his mind, and Freya was kind enough to not smack him for the smirk on his face.

There was a loud bang of her front door opening, causing both Evert and Freya in the second floor to jolt a bit, "Freya! I heard that Evert came over! Is he here?" Stahl's voice bounced off the walls, the joy barely contained. His brother however stifled a curse word and began to chop up the herbs before him much more aggressively. The redhead let out a long suffering sigh, knowing that the peace in her tower was about to come to a quick and brutal end.

"Yes Stahl—we're up here." Stahl was up the ladder almost immediately, bounding up and wrapping his little brother in a tight hug while Freya watched on with a pit in her stomach.

Evert's emotions seemed to be warring with themselves. At first he tensed up in the embrace, with a scowl on his lips. After a couple of seconds though, he relaxed and wrapped his arms around his brother. Five seconds was the young man's limit however, and with an awkward cough he clapped his brother on the back and separated himself from the embrace. "Hey Stahl. Good to see you."

Not quite truthful, but after having years of manners beat into him by his mother, he wasn't about to say how he really felt.

Stahl couldn't help but be disheartened by the lukewarm response that he received from his brother. Never one to quit however, he ignored the sense of unease he was getting and trudged onward. He wasn't an idiot, he knew that his brother wasn't happy with him for leaving, but he had a plan on how to handle it. First, he was going to give his brother some time to warm up to him again, they could hang out, spend time together like they were kids. After some time bonding Stahl was going to bring up what happened and they could talk about it like adults.

Springing a conversation like that first thing would only make things awkward.

Then again, not much felt like it could be more awkward than the silence that had fallen over the room. Freya was oozing nervousness, Evert looked like he was keen to storm off any second, and Stahl seemed to be frozen trying to figure out how to act in this sort of situation.

"So—where are you staying?" it was the first thing he thought of, even if he was fairly sure that Evert would answer by asking to stay in his rooms. He doubted his brother had enough money to rent a room nearby in the capital.

Evert's eyes darted to Freya for some sort of help, only to get a small shake of her head for assistance. Not surprising, she'd always been terrible at this sort of thing. With a roll of his eyes directed at his friend he looked back at his brother, "Actually, I'm staying here with Freya."

It was impossible to keep the look of shock off his face, and Stahl couldn't force himself to be apologetic about it. He knew that they'd shared a room back home, but this was far away from the watchful eyes of his parents. Freya let out a weary sigh, pinched the bridge of her nose as she closed her eyes and shook her head. "I'm very sorry, but I don't think that's proper, not until you two are married."

"What?" Freya's head snapped up quick enough to make her neck hurt, "Stahl I think you've got it wrong—" she was interrupted with a groan from Evert as he began to massage his temples, "Stahl that's really nothing to worry about—"

Stahl looked between the two, thinking back to all the letters he had exchanged with his mother, as she wondered when the two would finally do the proper thing and get married. According to her they were the only match for eachother in the village that made sense. He couldn't really understand, "Sorry, was there already a wedding?" surely he should have been told about that, no matter how distant he'd become with his brother.

" _ **No!**_ " the protest from both Freya and Evert was near deafening, enough to make Stahl flinch and step back. Evert continued, looking more uncomfortable than he did before, "I don't know what mam's been telling you, but Freya and I aren't married, and aren't going to get married." He could see the confusion on Stahl's face, "I'm just staying with her to help her."

Tying her hair back and pulling up her sleeves, Freya began to mix the potion in the cauldron before her. It was something she'd picked up from Adelbert, working through an awkward conversation made the conversation less awkward for yourself. "I need the help before I start up Stahl, Evert came as soon as he read my letter."

Stahl couldn't help but think that he could have helped, and that this whole thing still felt quite improper, though he held his tongue. "That's my fault then, sorry about the confusion." He chuckled, the sound weirdly loud in the silent room. Trying to ignore the feeling that he wasn't entirely welcome at the moment, Stahl rolled up his sleeves as well and began to chop up some herbs on the table. "What are we working on?" changing the subject always seemed to work well for him, and Stahl needed something that worked well at the moment.

"A clotting potion to help stem bleeding." Freya was happy for the subject change, a soft sigh of relief leaving her lips as the tension began to diffuse from the room. "Evert's taking care of the lady's mantle, I'm cooking down the candula, I'll need you to start grinding up the cayenne."

Her heart was beating hard in her chest, all of this was new and unexplored territory. She'd made potions before sure, and she'd seen Evert squabble and struggle with his emotions towards Stahl as well, but this was a new setting. This was her tower, this was her business, she was in charge. Next time she would be entirely within her rights to step in between the two. Or, to put it more fairly, diffuse the bomb that was Evert Kerner. It was a whole new way of thinking, she'd never been trained to take over anything. Her parents when they were alive hadn't gotten very deep into training her to take over the farm. After all, she'd only been a child at that point, and she didn't need to learn about bookkeeping yet or how to run a business.

Adelbert had taught her about bookkeeping, but not about taking charge. She wouldn't have been the one to take over after all, he'd focused on making sure that his sons knew how to haggle, how to take charge in a situation, how to instruct someone who worked for them. To put it simply, taking the reigns was something Freya still needed to learn.

Freya glanced up, looking at the two brothers focusing on their work intently. As much as Evert wanted to deny it, the two looked incredibly alike. The same hair, the same eyes, the biggest difference was that while Stahl's short and muscular stature leant to others perceiving him as the silent and brooding one, Evert's tall and lean stature led people to believe he was elegant and well mannered.

Both of those perceptions were wildly incorrect, but people didn't tend to realize that until it was too late.

The awkward silence had faded into an intent one, with the sound of work cutting through it. The way Adelbert liked his workroom to sound, and what sounded like music to Freya's ears. This too ended though, with Stahl piping up after a few minutes. "How long will you be staying Evert?" He kept his head down, focused on the task before him. Sure it had been over a decade since he'd formally trained to be an apothecary, but he still remembered enough to know that when it came to cayenne, you paid careful attention to what you were doing.

"I'm not sure." The words came out leisurely, as Evert focused on the knife and bundle of herbs in his hand rather than coming up with a snarky response to his brother. "As long as Freya needs me I suppose, the work load up here sounds much greater than what it was down home."

Wordlessly, as she saw Evert finish up his chopping she motioned for him to dump his work into her cauldron and to pick up another bundle of herbs to work on. "I doubt it will be that long." The help was appreciated after all, and truthfully it was needed, but based on her conversations with Lissa, Freya had a feeling that soon enough she would adjust to the steady workload coming her way and all would be well. "The help is appreciated though, this will really help me get a head start. After talking to Lissa though, I'm feeling much more confident about all of this."

"Lissa?" Evert stopped chopping. His brows furrowed, his eyes narrowed and the frown on his face became more pronounced. "Isn't that the princess' name?" When both Freya and Stahl nodded in the affirmative, Evert's eyes became wide as dinner plates, "You're on a first name basis with the princess!?"

Stahl bit his lip to keep the laugh muffled, "Everyone's on a first name basis with the princess." Looking towards Freya, he gestured loosely to his brother, "Did you not mention to him yet that things here are pretty casual?"

"I did." Freya kept working on her potion, refusing to look up from her work. The boys could get distracted all they want, but she didn't want to be. "But he didn't listen. I was kind of hoping he'd meet one of the royals, pull out all the stops so I could mess with him later."

The youngest Kerner scowled, hardly amused at this turn of events. "I'm so lucky to have you as a friend." Freya, unscathed by his sarcasm, simply shrugged, spared him a quick glance, and motioned for him to get back to work.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

 _Marc was a simple man with simple desires. Most would say that being raised in Plegia during the war was a rough childhood, and he couldn't blame them for thinking so. However, he still considered his life fairly normal until Ylisse had defeated his homeland. Now he was just a plain palace worker, with a very simple desire._

 _He smiled blankly at the woman who handed him the tray of treats to send to the Princess. It was strange living in Ylisse now, he'd come to realize that most of the commoners were just like the ones that lived in Plegia. People that were just trying their best to make it through their miserably short lives. He couldn't bring himself to fault them for their royalty's tyranny. He was a bit bitter though, if he was to be honest with himself. So many had been quick to forgive once Emmeryn had come into power, and even more had forgiven once she'd died. Even those in Plegia had their hearts warmed to the Ylissian side by her sacrifice._

 _It was disgusting if he was to be honest._

 _The past was the past however, and most of his countrymen who were quick to forgive had been killed in battle. When he'd moved to Ylisse, there had been no one to say goodbye. It was almost too easy to get a job in the castle. Ylisse, being the war hungry country it had always been had begun another cause two years after Plegia was defeated, and during that time the palace had been so understaffed he'd been hired with no concern to his background._

 _It was a blessing really, he'd been near starving when he'd come in. If one of the reasons he'd been hired was pity, Marc wasn't going to complain._

 _On his way to the Princess' room he paused with a frown, stooping into an alcove where he wouldn't be seen and poured a vial into the Princess' tea before resuming his path._

 _There was a twinge of guilt, small enough that he could easily squash it. Really, what he wanted was to go after the Exalt, but to complete his plans he had to make sure that the royal family was done away with. That meant Exalt Chrom, his Queen Sully, and the Princesses Lissa, Kjelle, and Lucina. It was a shame that such small children were being dragged into this, but that wasn't going to change his plans. He was being kind after all this wasn't going to hurt the Princess. She would become tired and would pass peacefully, it wasn't something that could be said about the others. He hadn't been able to quite perfect the dosage until recently. Quite a few had died terribly painful deaths._

 _That he did feel guilty about. That he had to take down commoners on his quest. It was for the best though, if he had shown his hand before now, he would have made a mistake, he knew it. Besides, once this was done the search for him would multiply in intensity many times over. It was one thing to kill someone who no one would miss, the heir to the throne was a different manner._

 _However, those before now had died giving aid to his cause, by throwing the scent off of his true plans. He would forever be grateful for their sacrifice. One thing that continued to tug at his heartstrings was the poor apothecary. That was not what he had wanted. He'd been a kindly old man who had looked after Marc when he'd been sick. To see him executed by hanging was quite painful. It was an honest mistake though, Marc hadn't thought about the possibility of someone else being blamed for what he was doing. He would be more careful now, to make sure that it wouldn't happen again. Lesson learned._

 _He smiled again as he passed into the Princess' chambers, setting the tray down on the table with an elegant bow. As he rose he saw the young princess giving him a grateful smile, and the twinge of guilt came back. There was the thought that he could knock over the tea, or remove it under some pretense. Surely some would argue it was the more moral course of action. After all, who would poison a child?_

 _Marc steeled his resolve, this was something that needed to happen, no matter who had to fall. He gave one more bow, a lower one this time, and bade farewell to the Princess Lucina. One day history would justify his actions. For the time, Marc would just have to deal with the emotions on his own._


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

As dusk fell, the trio settled into an easy silence. Freya was just thinking of how to preserve the herbs that hadn't been used today when the sound of someone banging on her door broke the peace. It was hard to characterize a noise as something, but the pounding was frantic, Freya was sure. A feeling of dread filled her stomach as she flew down the stairs and yanked open the door.

Greeting her was a ragged looking guard with fear in his eyes, "The Princess Lucina has been poisoned, you need to come immediately."

Freya shoved her feet into boots, not bothering to lace them she called up to Evert who was looking down in shock, "Gather an emergency kit, charcoal, lady's mantle, the usual. Meet me in the Princess' chambers as soon as you have it." With that she followed the guard who had come to get her, wishing that her new job hadn't started off with such a terrible event.

Adelbert had always impressed upon his apprentices the need for an emergency kit with the most common herbs for medical usage. It wasn't likely that it would hold everything you needed, but sometimes getting half of the right herbs was enough to buy a patient time. Evert's hands trembled as he shoved everything into a sack, finding himself completely numb with panic. This hadn't happened before, his father had tested them, but there had never been a matter of life or death like this. Stahl on the other hand seemed calm, he knew what was needed and was grabbing all the things that Evert missed with no comment. When the bag was filled, Stahl looked up at his younger brother, hoping that seeming calm would be enough to soothe his nerves. "Let's go. I'll show the way."

When Freya arrived, the chambers were a circus. Courtiers were outside blocking the door as they fretted, and the guard had to shove people out of the way for Freya to get inside. In the bedroom was only a bit more calm, Lissa was checking over the Princess Lucina, monitoring her heart beat with two delicate fingers on the child's throat.

She hadn't seen Sully in what seemed like forever, when the Queen had been so kind as to help her move in. When she had first met the woman, Freya couldn't help but believe that nothing could shake her. This obviously proved her wrong. Like any mother would, Sully was fretting about by her child's bedside, leaning down while holding the girl's hand. Freya couldn't hear what she was saying, but she knew that they were words of comfort for the unconscious child as her mother desperately prayed that the worst case wouldn't come to be.

That made the blue haired man next to Sully, the Exalt Chrom. In normal circumstances, or perhaps even less dire ones, Freya would have bowed and introduced herself. There wasn't time now. She had been told once that first impressions were the most important ones. That how you presented yourself to someone the first time shaped how they would see you forever. She had heard about the Exalt's bravery and kindness for many years now, since Stahl had joined the Shepherds. It had made him seem like some kind of glorious, inhuman being. Seeing him now though, Freya knew what he was. A father who was scared for his daughter. "Please help Lucina."

"I will." Freya wasn't sure how yet, but she would manage. Looking around she saw the nursemaid crying in the corner, "What happened?" There wasn't time to be a comforting presence, and no matter how fast Evert was with the kit, it wouldn't matter if Freya didn't know what the poison was.

The young woman wiped her tears on her sleeve, her voice strained with emotion. "I was playing with the Princess when her food was delivered, she drank some of her tea and then—" there was a fresh batch of tears, and Freya resisted the urge to slap the woman for wasting so much time.

Sully however, took care of that. The queen's head snapped up at the sound of the woman bursting into tears once more, "If you don't pull yourself together, God help me _I will give you something to cry about_. Now spit it out girl."

The nursemaid, appropriately frightened was quick to dry her tears, "She said she felt strange, and fainted. I couldn't wake her up no matter how much I tried."

"How's her heart?" Freya was already making her way to the tea, holding the cup up to her nose and sniffing it. Nothing stuck out as strange smelling, and if it tasted poorly the Princess surely would have spat it back out.

Lissa shook her head, "Her heart is slowing down, we need to do something quick."

Right on cue Evert burst through the door, with Stahl in tow. Evert looked just as scared as Freya felt, though she wasn't about to comment on it. As long as he could still work, how scared he was didn't matter. "Evert, clear one of the tables and set up everything. Miss-" she directed herself towards the nursemaid, "What sort of tea is this supposed to be?"

"The tea?" she glanced between Freya and the Exalt Chrom sitting in the bed, wondering what in the world the flavor of the tea had to do with anything. "It's rose tea. Shouldn't you—"

Freya smelled the tea again, and then inspected the liquid inside it. "They added something to the tea then, whoever did this didn't make a tea just to poison her." It certainly smelled like roses, but there was another mild, pleasant scent in the mix. That, along with the dark color the tea had become didn't leave many other options. "It's belladonna. Evert, start making a charcoal paste."

He was quick to get to work, appreciative that Freya had such a firm grasp on the reigns at the moment. "We'll need to prop her up to get her to drink it."

Sully was already on it, lifting up her daughter and pushing pillows so the girl laid upright. "What does it mean if it's belladonna? I've heard of it, but can charcoal actually help?"

"Belladonna is a fast acting poison, but it isn't always fatal. Children often poison themselves with it because its berries are so sweet and pleasant tasting. You can cure it with charcoal, especially if you act fast." The second Evert was done with the charcoal mixture, Freya took it from him and settled herself down at the Princess' side. It wouldn't be easy to get an unconscious child to drink this, but it wouldn't be impossible. Lucina's eyes only opened the smallest bit when the paste was tipped into her mouth, and though Freya wasn't sure if the Princess could hear her, she still whispered a single word. "Drink."

The girl's blue eyes were quickly closed again, though by some small miracle Freya was able to have her drink the concoction without having to force it down her throat. She could feel all eyes on her, when there was no discernable difference in the Princess' condition. "Why isn't anything happening?" the Exalt's voice was terse, appropriately on edge as he waited for his daughter to show some sort of noticeable improvement.

Freya frowned, she ought to have explained this earlier. "Charcoal is the cure, but it isn't immediate. It will take at least a few hours to soak up the poison in her system. However, since she didn't drink much of the tea—" she glanced back towards the nursemaid for confirmation, continuing once she saw a nod. "Then she will make a full recovery. Once she gets some rest she will be back to normal. It won't do any lasting harm."

The relief that swept through the room was palpable, as both parents' shoulders sagged while a long held breath left them. Lissa's hand left its position at Lucina's wrist to Chrom's shoulder as she gave her brother a small squeeze and a smile.

The Exalt took several deep breaths, seemingly pulling himself together before looking back at Stahl, "I want you to get the courtiers to leave and go back to bed. Then I want you and Frederick to start looking into whoever might have done this. Check with the kitchen staff first."

Freya worked her way over to the makeshift work station as Stahl left the room, gritting her teeth as she looked through the herbs Evert had brought over. Sure, the Princess wasn't going to die, but belladonna was known for causing terrifying hallucinations, and Freya was hoping that she could find something that would keep that from happening. A sedative would be the most obvious answer, but if she gave a sedative to an already sedated patient things could go terribly—

"You said _lasting_ harm."

The Exalt's voice rang out like a bell in the chamber, and the young woman's heart clenched in her chest at the tone. It was almost as if she'd lost her ability to think for a few moments, and was only able to turn around and face the man. Evert, thankfully, was somewhat quicker on the draw than Freya was, though his reply didn't help much. "What?"

"What do you mean by lasting harm?" his question was simple, and the cogs in Freya's mind began to turn once more, thinking of the best way to word this without causing panic. Adelbert had always stressed the importance in keeping a patient's family calm, when possible.

Sully's face was hard, and suddenly Freya knew all too well why people found her frightening. "Tell us the truth, Freya."

'Hells bells', Freya thought, briefly wondering how Sully knew exactly what was on her mind. She didn't hold onto that for long before speaking,

"She'll be sick for a couple of days, at least. The charcoal will only suck up enough poison to keep her from dying. She'll still be sick. Her heart rate will go up, she'll stay sedated for almost the whole time, she won't know what's going on, there will be a great deal of vomiting, she won't be able to speak and will have trouble swallowing…" her voice trailed off, as she motioned towards the herbs on the table, "She'll be extremely distressed—more likely than not she'll hallucinate to some extent. While there are some ways to calm her down, I don't believe that should be the main focus. Making sure she keeps water down is the most important thing, so I plan on treating the vomiting which will happen. "

A frown came onto the Sully's lips, looking down at her husband, before looking back down at her little girl. A calloused hand brushed the hair out of Lucina's face, "Do what you have to do."

The next few days passed in a blur of screaming, crying, spilt tonics and elixirs. Soon enough it was the middle of the night, three days laters—Freya was dabbing at a stain on her sleeve that was either garlic juice or vomit, unable to tell the difference at this point. Chrom and Sully were dead asleep—the exalt was asleep on the floor in the corner, surrounded by state papers and important documents. This bedroom had turned into his office the past few days. Sully was sitting in a chair next to the bed, slumped onto the comforter next to her daughter, in a position that Freya refused to believe was comfortable. Evert was back in the tower, probably asleep after being worked so hard by Freya.

The apothecary hadn't been to her tower since the Princess Lucina had fallen ill, Adelbert had always preached staying by your patient till the end, and it was what Freya intended to do.

She could hear the child stirring in her bed, Freya's hand snatching up the nearest bucket to catch whatever sick Princess Lucina spat up. Surprisingly, when she turned around to dash towards the bed, she was faced with a slightly confused, but not vomiting, little girl. "I don't feel good." The child's voice was hoarse, not shocking considering all of the screaming and throwing up that had happened the past few days.

"I know you don't." Freya kept her voice soft as she set down the wastebasket and sat down on the other side of the child. "You've been very sick the past few days, but now that you're awake you should start to feel better, Princess."

The blue haired child shook her head, the spitting image of her mother for that moment, "Just Lucina, please." Obviously, she had inherited her parent's disregard for proper titles. The little girl rubbed her throat, grimacing as she did so. "What's your name, Miss?"

She was certainly a serious little child, Freya thought. Quite proper too. "My name is Freya Bauer, you can call me Freya, if you would like." The apothecary rested her hand on the child's forehead, happy that her fever had gone down. "How about this, I'll make you some tea for your throat, and I'll answer any questions you have. Does that sound alright?"

"That sounds very nice, thank you Miss Freya."

Briefly, Freya wondered what sort of upbringing a princess might have, to result in such a grown up response in a child that was almost certainly feeling sick and confused. Instead of asking such a question, Freya simply smiled, and spoke softly, "Just Freya, please."


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Stahl's day had been split between searching for the poisoner and checking in on Freya and Evert as they worked. Truth be told, both of those things left him exhausted, but both were incredibly important things that he couldn't stop doing. Sir Kerner splashed some cold water on his face in a half hearted attempt to wake himself up. It wasn't even dawn yet, but between training the recruits, investigating with Frederick, and helping out his friends, he was facing an extremely busy day.

Investigating hadn't even led to anything yet. Nothing that gave them any leads at least. They'd started at the most obvious source, the man who had delivered the food to Princess Lucina's rooms. Stahl felt bad for the poor man, he'd seemed beside himself in shock. The lad had blamed himself for not noticing that the tea had been a different color than usual. Frederick didn't seem to trust the man, but Stahl hadn't seen any reason not to. They'd searched his person and his rooms and hadn't found anything to suggest that he'd been a part of it though, and they had moved onto the kitchen.

The kitchen had given them the biggest piece of evidence, that had somehow provided no leads . Frederick had found in one of the cabinets, tucked away, a vial of concentrated belladonna essence. They'd interrogated everyone who worked in the kitchens, anyone who worked near the kitchens, basically anyone who had stepped into the kitchens, and no one seemed like they were likely to have put it there. Frederick had brought up a good point as well, what kind of idiot would leave a vial of poison in a place where almost anyone could find it, instead of hiding it? It was obviously left behind to be found, which meant that the poisoner was trying to throw them off the trail.

Stahl's face had an uncharacteristic scowl on it, as he got dressed. Tugging on a cream shirt and a green doublet on top, the man was racking his mind for some sort of clue that they might have missed. Perhaps they could look back to all the others who'd been poisoned for some sort of link?

Granted, there was no way Frederick hadn't already thought of that, but Stahl was still going to bring it up when he saw him. He needed to be helpful in some sort of way. It wasn't as if he was able to do much right now.

His job after the war was simple, train the new squires and soldiers every morning, and assist Frederick with whatever he could. The latter was more of a volunteer position, but Stahl still considered it his duty.

The war was over though. Everyone was at peace. While it was important that the troops be ready in case something should happen, there wasn't much urgency to his morning duties. Stahl grabbed a hunk of stale bread and gnawed at it as he made his way to the training grounds, feeling his mood drop by the second. There was no way he wanted another war, but he couldn't deny that his most basic duty was almost unneeded at this point.

As for assisting Frederick, it was one thing to help out with papers, and it was another to investigate for a would be assassin. Papers were easy, papers were a thing that Stahl had a good grasp on. Investigating was harder. Stahl was smart, and Stahl was good at reading people, but he was apparently bad at connecting the dots in this sort of situation.

The elder Kerner brother passed through the kitchens, with a frown so deep that one of the cooks mistook him for his younger brother for a moment. "Are you alright Sir?"

"I'm fine, thank you." Shocked out of his reverie for a moment, Stahl took a deep breath and made himself smile, it wouldn't do him any good if his troops saw him like this, and it would only make Sully spar with him that much harder if she saw him surly. He had a feeling that was her version of being comforting. He accepted the apple handed to him with a bright grin, at least the people in the kitchen didn't hold a grudge after all the interrogations they'd been given.

Maybe this was what Freya had been talking about. How he would slide into an easy going persona when someone wanted to know about the more serious side of him. He still liked to think of himself as an optimist, as someone who saw the best of a situation and of people, especially when compared to his brother.

But damn it all, it was hard to be optimistic sometimes, and it wasn't as if someone could be happy all the time, especially after what had happened in the war.

Freya seemed to be understanding that better than she did before. Even though she'd only been at the castle for about two and a half weeks, she seemed to be accepting of how he'd changed. Or at the very least, she'd stopped commenting on it.

Stahl shook his head, he didn't need to be thinking of her right now, she'd been on her mind too much lately as is. Not something he needed when he was trying to find a poisoner.

However, he did intend to see what exactly her relationship was with Evert before his brother left.

Again, a matter for later. Especially since he'd arrived at the training grounds.

This section of the palace was intended to be utilitarian, or at the very least it should have been, but as with most thing at Ylisstol Court, it was quite beautiful. The palace towered over the rest of the city, atop the hill. The training grounds were to the south of the palace by about a quarter mile, dug out of the hill to provide a flat surface for training troops. It was quite a thing to see really—the palace stood quite beautifully nearby, the white walls turned an almost pink hue as the sun rose over the capitol city.

Like most things at a palace, beauty was prioritized over defense, which meant that there were no obvious walls to give the inhabitants a claustrophobic feeling. Instead, the training grounds were surrounded by the same lush greenery that surrounded the rest of the palace.

If Stahl was a painter or a poet, he would have made a masterpiece to capture it. However, he was a simple knight, and instead of standing around gawking he allowed himself to be a bit comforted by the scenery and focused instead on the training regimen for the day.

As usual, sparring and practicing provided a much needed release for his frustrations, and as he walked away, Stahl felt much better than he did before leaving.

The trip back to his room, and the subsequent bath and changing of clothes passed quickly. He wouldn't be able to help Frederick today, as his mentor would be at some sort of diplomatic meeting all day. Which meant that he'd be spending the day with Freya and his brother. Perhaps he could take Freya to the riverbank to harvest some of the plants there. That would be a nice change of pace, and it would mean some time away from the passive aggressiveness that was his younger brother.

Stahl had a feeling he would have to get a handle on that situation quick, though he wasn't altogether sure how he would. His original plan of letting things die down before having the tough discussion didn't seem to be working.

Maybe today would bring a change, he could only hope.

He tugged at his shirt a bit, a green colored number that was just a tad nicer than what he would normally wear. Probably a little too nice for working in an apothecary, but it would be alright. Stahl walked through the door with a grin on his face, much more awake than the two sitting at Freya's kitchen table. Evert's hair was tied up in what appeared to be some sort of birds nest atop his head, and Freya looked like she was about to fall asleep where she sat. Both were slowly working on some porridge. "Good morning! Did you two just wake up?"

"Yeah." Freya nudged the chair across from her away from the table with her foot, inviting Stahl to sit down. "We've got more porridge in the pot if you'd like some." Knowing him he was probably hungry, she'd never seen Stahl not hungry.

Evert appeared to be slightly more awake than his friend, and apparently in a good mood as he spoke to his brother, "So how was your training thing?"

Stahl's eyebrows raised, surprised that his brother had bothered to ask. Maybe things were taking a turn for the better. "It went well! Troops in peace time are usually pretty soft, but between Sully and I, it doesn't seem like it'll be that way."

Freya still didn't entirely understand why they needed an army when things were so peaceful, but she supposed that wasn't really something she needed to worry about in the moment. After all, her job was more on the medicine side of thing, let the ruling of the country be handled by everyone else. Besides, if the poisoner wasn't caught soon, Freya had a feeling that her job was about to get far more busy.

The knight served himself a bowl of porridge, before sitting down across from his friend, "So Freya, I was wondering, do you still want to go to the river and transplant some plants over here? We could do that today."

Evert's eyebrow quirked upwards, noting that the invitation hadn't been extended to him as well. Freya however didn't seem to notice this exclusion and looked thoughtfully out the window, picturing what needed to get done that day. "That would be nice… There's not much that need to be made today, most of it is just bottling things and delivering them. That could wait for a little bit though, especially if I'm getting more plants for the apothecary stock." She looked towards Evert, who appeared miffed for some reason she wasn't sure of, "Would you mind working on inventory while I go with Stahl?"

Not that there was a reason for Evert to say no, the tasks were manageable, and he'd come over to assist her after all.

"That sounds fine. I'll take over while your gone." It wasn't worth arguing against, and Evert's suspicions probably weren't based in truth. Besides, at the moment he was more focused on waking up and eating breakfast than anything else.

"Wonderful!" Freya was already getting excited, spending time harvesting plants was always a more fun way to wake up than stooping over a hot cauldron mixing a potion or pouring over books. Though the idea of riding a horse wasn't all too wonderful, however if she could ride Maple again, then it shouldn't be too bad. "I'll go get dressed then, give me a few minutes.

The brothers watched Freya walk to the bedroom section of the open room and put up a privacy screen before focusing back on their breakfast. Well, in Stahl's case, second breakfast.

Stahl wasn't entirely sure what to say, things still felt awkward with Evert, and since his original plan wasn't working he was obviously in need of a new one. "I was thinking, maybe tomorrow or the day after we could spend the day together. I'd like to show you around the town." That should be a fun day, especially considering Ylisstol was dozens of times bigger than their little village at home. Evert probably got a small glimpse of the city when he came in, but a proper tour was desperately in need.

"That would be… nice." It was strange, Evert was both filled with excitement and dread. Like any brother who had spent so much time away from his older sibling, he wanted to spend time with Stahl. However, like any brother who's older sibling had left a dozen years ago with no explanation and little communication since, he was still angry.

It led to some conflicting feelings.

Gratefully, Freya popped out from changing in record time to save Evert from forced small talk, "What should we bring? I was thinking a trowel and some sacks, is there anything else that you think we should take along?"

"That should be good enough." Stahl finished the rest of his breakfast, grinning as Freya tugged on her boots. Looking back to his brother, "How about I come by noon tomorrow and I'll show you around the city?"

Evert nodded, pushing the small bit of his breakfast that was unfinished away from him, a bit too nervous to finish eating. He watched his brother and his friend walk out of the tower together, and let out a sigh. Time to get to work.

The walk to the stables seemed shorter, now that Freya knew the way there. That was thanks to Stahl, she supposed. "Will Maple be able to hold myself and the plants we'll be taking?" if they were uprooting the plants then surely that would weigh quite a bit, and seeing as Maple was much smaller than Stahl's horse, she worried about hurting the sweet animal.

The knight couldn't help but chuckle, "She'll be able to hold you and the plants. Don't worry about that, she's strong enough, even if she isn't a war horse. If worse comes to worse, we can load up mine, I can walk alongside him, and you can ride back. It'll be alright." As they came into the stable and were greeted by a stable boy, Stahl was ready to take a coin and ask for their horses. Freya however beat him to the punch, pressing a tip into the boy's hand and politely requesting the horses that they wanted. He tried to hide the amused look on his face, "So you're alright with tipping now?"

"Like you said, it's good to tip so you get the best horses." A silver coin was a silver coin, and while Freya wasn't becoming rich by any means, she was still making enough to tip generously and wanted to do so. It was surprising really, no one ever tipped back in her home village, but that seemed to be the norm here. Whenever she or Evert delivered potions or medicine, they would receive a tip for the trouble. It was actually rather nice, she had to admit. Evert seemed just as surprised as she was, though quite happy at this newfound cultural difference.

Maple was sweet at ever, when she was brought out. Freya still felt a stir in her stomach at the thought of riding a horse, but the thought that it would be the same gentle horse as last time was comforting. She briefly wished she has brought a treat of some kind, and glanced around the stable to see if there was one available. It wasn't a particularly pretty building, though it didn't really have to be. The woodwork was visible, and obviously well kept, there was hay all over the floor and a wall filled with saddles, bridles, reigns, and all sorts of other things Freya didn't know the name for yet. Those details could be focused on, but to do so would be to ignore the obvious fact about the stables. It was filled with horses.

Large ones, small ones, and while she didn't know for certain the difference, Freya was fairly certain that she saw a pony in one of the stalls, for it stood at about the same height she did.

Stahl must have caught her staring at the beast, because he felt the need to chime in as he saddled up their horses, "That's Lucina's pony. She's learning how to ride with her mother." He finished cinching one last buckle on Mable's saddle and hoisted Freya onto her horse. "Do you remember the way?" He flashed her a bright smile as he hopped atop his own horse, happy that she had nodded, as a thought having wormed its way into his head. "I want you to lead the way this time."

"You want me to what?" it was hard to not smile even broader, at her confused reaction. If this worked out, Freya would know how to properly ride a horse, which was certainly an invaluable skill here in the capital.

"I want you to lead. It's very easy to guide her with the reigns, gently pull back on the right to go right, and left to go left." He tapped his heels against the sides of his horse, prompting the animal to walk out into the field outside the stable, "Come here and practice for a bit, just go in a circle."

Freya seemed nervous, though Stahl supposed that was natural. However she did as he asked and led Maple in circles for a few minutes, until Stahl could see Freya's shoulders relax as she became more accustomed to what was being asked of her. "Are you ready to lead?"

She frowned as she thought, trying to visualize the way to the river bank. She was almost entirely sure she could do it, but she still worried about taking a wrong turn. Almost as if he read her thoughts, Stahl piped up from behind her, "If you take a wrong turn I'll tell you. I just want you to get some practice riding. Maple knows the way too, you'll just need to nudge her along."

The journey to the riverbank was silent aside from the sound of their horses walking along the trail, and Stahl kept silent as Freya concentrated on the task set before her. He craned his head, taking in the scenery. It was beautiful as always, the greenery was just beginning to turn into the reds and oranges that fall always brought to this part of Ylisse. Soon enough the trees and the shrubs would be garnet instead of emerald. It was the same back at their home village, but Stahl couldn't help but see it with new eyes every time he came this way.

Coming to the capital had been life changing. It had breathed a new sense of wonder into him. He hadn't imagined that a world could be so big. Growing up in the village, the farthest he'd ever gone from his home was a seven mile walk to a farm on the outskirts. The simple journey, just a half days ride away from his home to Ylissetol, had shown him more things than he thought existed. The war, while terrible and full of carnage he hadn't known could be possible, had shown him even more of the world than he thought was possible. In that way, and in the way it had provided him with so many lifelong friends, it had been the best thing it could have happened to him.

Life seemed to be full of that, contradictions. More than he had thought could happen when he was a child.

He wondered if Freya found the same life changing discoveries he had when he'd first come to this city. It had changed how he saw everything forever. He'd been just like her, objecting when he saw Frederick tip the stable boy, thinking it was a bribe. Content to walk to the kitchens and ask for meals instead of asking them to be brought. Insisting on the proper manners and titles he'd been taught to use by his mother. Allowing the changes to happen was strange, at first it had felt like he was losing himself, ignoring what he'd been taught as a child.

They were approaching the riverbank, and he could almost feel the sense of pride radiating off of Freya, who was excited at her accomplishment. Stahl supposed the next lesson would be to teach her how to trot, but he wasn't sure that Freya would wish to learn that.

Ah well, something to figure out later, he thought. Freya swung her leg over the saddle, about ready to jump off herself, until Stahl saw her realize the fact that she was actually quite a bit far off the ground and hesitate. Quick to help, he hopped off his own horse and lifted her off the horse and to the ground. "There we go, let's get started, shall we?"

He could see the cogs turning in her head, as she surveyed the plants around her. Taking in the pink flowers of the marshmallow plant, the tiny chervil sprouts around the bank, and the ladyslippers that dotted their surroundings. To the uninformed eye, it simply looked like a pretty garden scene, filled with flowers and greenery that were thriving for just a bit longer until winter came. To an apothecary it was an Eden, a place filled with life saving plants that could be used at their disposal.

Marshmallow, Freya had already. Chervil was needed, ladyslipper was too. Stahl was right, there were many things here that had either been dead in the greenhouse when Freya had arrived, or hadn't been present in the slightest. "Let's get to work, starting with the chervil." Unafraid to get dirty, Freya knelt in front the little plant and gave a bright smile up to Stahl. "The things here will complete my greenhouse, thank you for showing me this place.

"I'm happy to help." He'd promised his father that he'd look after Freya while she was here with him after all, and while they hadn't been terribly close as children, he still wanted to help her out when possible. It seemed that the two of them had become friends in the few weeks that she'd been in the capital city with him, something he was grateful for. Despite how happy he was that he'd gone out from the little village he'd called home in his childhood, Stahl was still human. He still missed home. He still got home sick. Freya provided some peace that he hadn't thought he needed.

Again the pair were silent. Adelbert hadn't raised a group of children who partook in small talk. Especially when there was work to be done. It seemed that everyone, Stahl, Freya and Evert had taken up that trait as their own as they'd grown up. It was comforting to Stahl, some time spent with someone in silence. No need for talking, no need for forcing conversation just to fill the space that silence left.

Earlier in the day Stahl had thought that his days were too busy, that doing so much running around was wearing him down. At the moment though, as he dug the chervil out of the ground he found himself happy for this work, and thinking that he ought to visit more if it would be like this.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The smile on Freya's face was a mile wide as she walked into her tower, with quite a number of plants in tow between her and Stahl. "These ought to help you out a lot, I'm sorry I can't stop and help plant them though."

"No it's alright, I know you have to go." The squire who had brought word that Frederick needed Stahl had seemed quite rushed, and Freya was just grateful that he'd been able to help her carry everything in. It would have been far too much for her to do it by herself. Through the opening in the ceiling where the ladder dropped down, Freya could see her friend. She called up, loud enough that her voice would carry clearly, "Evert can help me plant everything, can't you Evert?"

Evert stopped chopping the plants in front of him for a second, just long enough to call down. "Yeah I can help. See you tomorrow, Stahl." His older brother smiled and said something in the affirmative before walking off and leaving the two young apothecaries by themselves. Freya frowned, Evert's tone seemed off, while he wasn't always the happy go lucky person his brother was, it was rare for him to sound so… disgruntled.

She peered up through the opening, hoping to see his face, though only rewarded with an unhelpful view of his ankle. "What's wrong?"

Evert was many things at once. The younger brother. The next in line to run an apothecary. A bit on the petty side. Most of all though, he was like his brother. "How was hanging out with Stahl?"

Freya rolled her eyes, of course he was changing the subject. "We had fun, there was a lot of plants that we needed, I think it'll help out a lot. Can you help me take them up and repot them please?" Maybe he'd start talking once some work got done. It was easier to let him come around on his own than try to force a conversation.

"I'm glad, you're missing a lot." most of the plants on the third floor were half dead—it seemed that the stress of being overturned in the search for evidence had been too much for some of them, and not being watered hurt the rest. Evert was down the ladder in no time flat, quick to sling a sack over his shoulder. "Have you two been hanging out a lot?" part of him regretted coming up to the palace. The insecure little twelve year old that wanted to scream out that he was just as good as his brother, and that was a part of himself that he had tried very hard to silence.

He wasn't a kid anymore though, and he didn't have to listen to the nervousness burning in his chest. Freya hiked a sack over her shoulder and led the way up the ladder to the third floor. Resisting the urge to snap at her friend for the passive aggressiveness he was showing at the moment, Freya let out a sigh and continued on in the conversation, "Not much, he's been very kind though, showing me around the castle and helping me out. He's making this a lot easier."

When he got onto the third landing he dropped the sack down on the floor without grace, scowling as Freya let out a noise of protest. Evert always liked to think of himself as the more sophisticated sibling. The one who could take things in a dignified manner and discuss them with poise. Right now though, all he could think about was the fact that if Freya and Stahl got together, it would put him in an awkward position. "You like him don't you?"

There it was. "Yeah, a little bit. Is that why you're acting pissy?" she leant over to pick up the plant he'd unceremoniously dropped onto the ground, "Please be more gentle with the plants, I don't want to go back down the river today."

"I'm not being pissy!" he made his way down the ladder as Freya began to transplant the herbs, leaving her behind on the third floor to start the work they said they'd do together. He ignored her comment about the plants, call it whatever you wanted, but he couldn't help but think that the damned plants weren't terribly important at the moment.

Thank goodness he couldn't see the disbelief and annoyance etched onto her face. "If you're not being pissy I'd hate to see what pissy is like."

"I don't like you two together. It's weird! You grew up together. You're like siblings." That wasn't really what bothered him, but he'd be damned if he was going to dive right into the heart of the matter straight away. He took quick stock of the plants that were left on the first floor and picked up two of the lightest before heading back up, a bit slower this time.

If he'd been in the same room as her, Freya would have tossed a handful of dirt his way. "We aren't like siblings! That's you and me, I didn't live with Stahl growing up. What's the real reason you're freaked out?"

He carried up two more sacks, setting them down a bit more gently this time. "I don't mean weird for you, I mean weird for me!"

"Oh, well at least you've got a good reason." The sarcasm in Freya's voice was about as obvious as she could manage to make it. She tossed the trowel into the plant bed and sat atop the rim. "C'mon, talk to me. Stahl and I aren't even dating, it's just a little crush! You've never gotten freaked out by me liking someone before."

"You're supposed to be _my_ friend!"

"I am _your_ friend!" She scowled at him, and motioned for him to sit down as well. Was this some insecure little brother thing? Freya was fairly certain he'd come up because he'd been jealous Freya had "left" him for Stahl, and she wouldn't have been surprised if this was something in the same vein. What she would love was for Evert to just come out and say what was bothering him for once. He sat down, though he didn't seem much more calm for it, if anything Evert only looked more anxious and upset.

Evert tapped his foot on the floor, finding himself full of nervous energy. It was hard to put into words why he didn't' like this situation, and that certainly made talking about it much more complicated. "I just don't like it, okay?" Freya let out a groan as she began to massage her temples. Evert was very aware of the fact he wasn't being helpful at the moment, though he couldn't bring himself to really try and fix that.

He stood up abruptly, not sure what to do as the walls seemed to crowd around him. Evert rubbed his sternum through his shirt with the heel of his palm to try and ease the tightness in his chest. "I'm going to get some air."

"Evert—" he was already making his way down the ladders before she could react, and while Freya climbed down as fast as she could she still was unable to catch up with him. He was out of the tower as quick as a rabbit and just as jumpy.

Freya rested her hands on her hips, a frown on her face, unsure of what could have gone differently in that conversation and what she could do to help. A glance out the window showed he was out of sight and Freya could only hope that when he said he needed air, he also meant that he wanted some space to himself.

The younger Kerner was halfway across the gardens at that point, not quite sure where he was going. He could make his way into the main section of the palace surely, but going inside to a place where he didn't think he would fit in didn't sound appealing. The gardens proved to be quite beautiful at least, and the cool air provided some relief for the heat in his chest.

Maybe he'd rushed too much into this, he'd seen more of Stahl in the past week than he had in the last three years. And as much as he hated to admit it, it was hard to play second fiddle to Freya for once. He was happy for his friend, of course, but the little jealous boy inside of him wouldn't shut up and let him be more supportive.

The gardens had some sort of maze or labyrinth and after one false turn, before Evert knew it, he'd found himself quite lost in the shrubbery. "Hell's bells…."

This was not what he needed at the moment. In fact, it was probably the least helpful thing that could have happened in this situation. Weaving through the maze didn't seem to be helpful, and Evert couldn't tell if he was getting closer to the exit or if he was getting farther and farther away.

"Oh!" another voice let out an exclamation and a loud oath as Evert slammed right into another man in his haste to escape the hedges. "I am so sorry—" whoever he bumped into had impeccable manners, especially if he was going to apologize for something that was Evert's fault. "Are you okay?"

"No—well, yes, I'm fine. I mean no please don't apologize." This was probably what Evert got for running out of an argument and into some damn maze. The man before him seemed familiar, dark hair, shorter, though Evert couldn't place where he'd seen him before. Unsure of what to do in this situation, Evert extended his hand to shake the other man's "I'm sorry, my name is Evert. Have we met?"

The stranger quirked his head just a bit to the side, trying to place the man before him. He seemed a bit familiar, though he wasn't sure. "I think we have, I'm Marc. I deliver foods from the kitchen, so we've probably run into each other before." Evert could hear the Plegian twinge in Marc's accent, and tried to quell immediate bad impression that came to his mind. The war was years ago, and if a Plegian had been hired by the kitchens, he had to be trusted by the palace.

"It's nice to meet you Marc." He'd probably seen him delivering food the tower. That had to be it, Evert couldn't think of any other possibility. Glancing around at their surroundings, cornered on all four sides by what appeared to be ten foot tall shrubbery, Evert focused his attention back on his new acquaintance, "Could you please help me get out of here? I got lost…"

Marc laughed, and clapped Evert on the back, "Of course I can. It's easy to get lost in here. It happened to me all the time when I first got here." He made a come hither gesture towards Evert and began to lead the way out of the maze. "So where are you from Evert? What brings you to the palace?" If Evert was a servant, Marc would have heard about him joining, which meant he was either a visitor or a contracted worker. Either way he probably slept somewhere in the servant's quarters, the only difference between servants and contracted workers was the latter got paid more and got larger apartments.

"Ah—I'm from a village just south of here, have you heard of Liepsung? It's about a half day's ride." Instinct told him to look for distinctive markers in his surroundings so if he made his way into the maze again he could get out, but all he saw was a wall of indistinguishable green. "I came to help out my friend, she's the new apothecary."

That was where Marc had met him. The night when he'd tried to poison the Princess. He'd run in past him with some sort of kit. Marc felt his throat tighten at the idea he might get caught before he shook off the idea. He'd been cleared by the investigators so far, and it wasn't like anyone had caught onto what he'd been doing in the mean time. Though, no one would find out about that for at least another week or so.

"So you're Sir Kerner's brother? I met him." The resemblance was uncanny actually, Marc was surprised he hadn't placed it before. It was probably because of how long and lean this new brother was.

Evert nodded, even though Marc couldn't see it. "I am, yes." There was the same feeling of anxiety as before, a little spark in his chest that wouldn't go away. It would be great if for once someone didn't recognize him as Stahl's brother.

Marc quirked a brow, that certainly didn't sound like a very happy yes. It wasn't his business, but as someone who had no family, Marc couldn't help but think he'd be overjoyed at the idea of having a sibling. Then again, not everyone had the same upbringing and life he did. "This is the last turn out of the maze." All of the sudden the pair were out in the open, and in the garden once more. The palace was visible again, towering over them like a brilliant golden mountain.

"Thank you for the help." Evert felt as if he could finally breathe now that he was out in the open, and was happy to fill his lungs with the cool air once more.

The Plegian paused, and looked over the man next to him. He couldn't quite put it into words, but he felt as if Evert wasn't feeling quite right. "Have you gotten a proper tour of the palace grounds yet?"

"A tour?" that caught him off guard, he'd mostly been thinking about how nice it was to be out of that damned maze. Stahl hadn't shown him around yet, the only time he'd walked through the palace was when the Princess had been poisoned. Freya had shown him the way to the kitchens and to the gardens, but other than that he hadn't the slightest idea of where anything was. "No, I haven't. Not yet."

Marc nodded, and motioned for Evert to follow him. "Come with me, I'll show you around."

Freya frowned, as she looked up through the greenhouse roof. The stars were bright in the sky above her, the moon hung low, and Evert still hadn't come back. She'd been able to plant everything by herself, although it hadn't been easy.

There was a sinking feeling in her stomach, she wasn't as nervous a person as Evert was, but she'd be damned if having her best friend out this late after an argument didn't make her feel uneasy. Maybe she could track down Stahl and ask him to help look for Evert? The feeling in her stomach had replaced hunger, and after thinking about it for a few seconds longer Freya strode towards the door, intent on tugging on her boots and going out searching for Evert.

Right on cue, the door swung inwards with a bang. Freya leapt back, feeling both shocked and relieved to see a happy looking Evert stride into her tower. "Hells bells Evert! You damn near made my heart stop—" she wasn't sure how to act, he'd left looking near tears and come back looking like all was wonderful. Hand on her chest, she could feel her heart pounding underneath her sternum, "Are you alright? You've been gone for a while, I was about to go out looking for you."

"You were?" that was surprising, until he really thought about how long he'd been gone. From a little before noon to past ten at night according to Freya's water clock, it made sense she'd been concerned. A bit of guilt tugged at his heart, and he let out a sigh as he bent over to unlace his boots. "I'm sorry for scaring you and making you worry. I needed to get out to calm down, ended up meeting a nice servant who showed me around the palace and the palace grounds." Evert set his boots neatly down next to Freya's boots at the door and gave her a small smile. While what had happened earlier still weighed on his mind, he couldn't help feel a bit more at ease.

He'd made a friend? That was good, she supposed, though she would have loved some sort of heads up that he'd be out so late. Freya shrugged off the thought, he came back in one piece, and he seemed more relaxed than before. It wasn't her place to worry. "Are you feeling better? You seemed upset." She walked towards the kitchen and poured each of them a mug of ale from the pitcher set atop the counter. It was too weak to get them tipsy, but strong enough to help relax them. Just the right balance.

Evert took a mug and raised it up with a simple "Cheers." With a sip, he sat atop the table in the kitchen and shrugged. "Not completely better…." He looked back up at Freya with a frown, "I know you and Stahl aren't together. I know you just like him. I know that doesn't impact our friendship. It just bothers me."

Freya opened her mouth to speak, and was silenced as Evert raised his hand, his pointer finger up in the air, "But that's my problem. I'll deal with it."

"Thank you." She took a large swig of her ale, it had been a rather stressful day and she couldn't help but think that this was quite needed. "A lot of this is premature I think, It's just a little crush, nothing more. I don't have any plans at least." Freya smiled to herself, noting that Evert still didn't seem entirely comfortable with this line of talk. Baby steps were in order, it would seem. "I hope tomorrow helps you two, I think spending time together will be good."

Evert scowled, the nervousness was starting to well up in his chest again. Freya was right though, he couldn't rightly continue on this path. It wouldn't do him or Stahl any good. He resisted the urge to chug his drink and took a slow sip instead. "You're probably right." he tapped his foot on the floor, and focused on taking deep breaths. "Will you be able to get along without me tomorrow?"

She managed fine today, but Freya wasn't going to say that. "Yeah, I think I'll be alright." Freya motioned to the ceiling, up towards the second floor where Evert slept, "I had the servants replace the bedding in your cot and have your clothes cleaned, so you should be all squared away for tomorrow."

Typical of Freya, Evert thought, doing small favors after a fight to try and cool things down. One more deep breath, and he finished off his ale. He'd thought a lot in the past few days about how his relationship with his brother was flawed, but Evert was starting to see that every relationship was flawed. Even the one he had with Freya.

Still, he knew she was trying her best, and that it would serve no good to start pointing out faults or flaws. If she could still manage to be worried about him after he'd been petty and jealous, then he could handle the fact she was terrible with conflicts and rushed to conclude them.

"Thank you." Evert flashed her a smile. He'd never been one for hugs or flowery words, so it left him in a bit of a pickle in times like this, where showing you and another person were alright would be as simple as an embrace. Thankfully, Freya knew this, and didn't expect him to do anything of the sort. Instead, Evert gave her a quick pat on the shoulder, resolved to water and care for the plants for Freya in the morning, and simply said "Good night."


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Freya awoke to a strange sound. Confused, she sat up in bed, trying to understand the muffled sounds two stories above her. There was a loud bang, a far off oath, and what sounded like sand falling onto the floorboards. "Evert? What are you doing?" it was strange to shout your first words of the day, but Freya was fairly used to it after growing up in Adelbert's home.

"I was tending to the plants!" his voice carried down with an echoing tint to it, followed by a quieter, more embarrassed voice, "I knocked over one of the planters…"

She rolled out of bed with a soft sigh, wondering if this was going to be indicative of the rest of her day. Freya trotted over towards the hole in the ceiling where the ladder came down, so she could shout upwards "Do you need help?"

Evert scowled as he righted the planter and shoveled the soil back inside. The damn thing was far too top heavy, he'd have to fix that. "No, I've got this. Can you get us breakfast?" he wanted to do something nice for Freya after all, and waking up early to do that morning's portion of work seemed about as nice as he could muster.

Breakfast? Breakfast, Freya could handle. Seemed much nicer than watering the dozens of plants up in the greenhouse. "I'll handle it. Thank you Evert." If this was a few weeks ago, when she'd first arrived, Freya would have gotten completely dressed and washed to go down to the kitchens. She'd have combed her hair and put on her nice shoes. Now, she felt no such compulsion. It was just early enough that the kitchens wouldn't be swamped with cooking for the royals, but late enough that the ovens would be running.

Freya put her hair into a plait, slipped on a house coat and her slippers, and made her way to the kitchens to request breakfast from the cooks. It seemed that many other of the contracted workers in the castle had the same idea, the stable master and the astronomer were both in their house coats as well, looking like they'd also just rolled out of bed. Freya gave them a small wave and a weary smile, before placing her order for breakfast. Porridge and fruit. Quite basic, but still delicious.

Once assured that the food would be on its way within the hour, Freya trudged back to the tower, hardly more awake. She'd have to brew a tea to help wake up. Adelbert had developed a recipe long ago, with a mixture of quite a few herbs and spices. It tasted quite horrendous when you were just trying it out, which probably helped to wake you up, now that Freya was thinking about it.

She shrugged off the housecoat on her shoulders, and hung up the pale blue quilted broadcloth piece up on the coat hook. Freya tugged up the sleeves of her nightgown before starting on the tea, offering Evert a glance over her shoulder as he descended the ladder. "Breakfast should be here in about an hour. Thank you for taking care of the plants."

Evert let out a grunt, it was hardly six in the morning and he was already covered in dirt. If Stahl was going to pick him up, he'd have to wash up once they were done with breakfast. Knowing his brother, he'd be here around eight. He stuck his hands in the washbasin and rinsed off the soil the best he could. "Happy to do it." Not true, but now he felt that he'd evened the scales between himself and Freya. Evert dried off his hands before plopping down at the table with a sigh. "What are you going to do today?"

"I need to finish the orders that Lissa gave me, so that's mostly stomach easing potions, gout relief, some poultices…." She frowned as she tipped the tea mix into a diffuser, mentally planning out her day. "Sully also asked me to make something to follow up treatment with Lucina, so I'm trying to think of what to do."

Really, now that the poison was out of her system, there wasn't a need to continue treatment. That being said, there was always a way to help boost a body's defense system, and Freya was determined to think of a way to do just that.

It still baffled Evert that Freya was on a first name basis with the people that ran the kingdom. "I'd try making it into a candy, she's a child, she'll be more inclined to take her medicine if you make it taste good." Off the top of his head, he was thinking ginger and elderberry, and he was sure Freya was thinking the same.

As soon as Freya set the tea in front of him, Evert began to stir in as much sugar as he could stomach. The damned mixture would taste like hell, but the sugar would at least make it go down smoother.

Freya on the other hand, drank her tea in one gulp, shuddering at the taste. Evert shook his head from the table, completely unable to understand how she was able to drink it all in one go. "Maybe you ought to work on making an awakening draught that doesn't taste like rat piss." Too focused on not retching to bother responding, Freya gave a weak nod and sipped on some water. She'd have to add that to the to do list. For all of Adelbert's great qualities, his potions had one downside, he never bothered to make anything taste good. The results were wonderful medicines that worked great, but tasted like death.

Hopefully Freya could find some middle ground.

Before she knew it, Stahl had picked Evert up, and she was left alone in the tower. Hopefully everything would go well between the brothers, and Freya silently willed the two to have a conversation about their troubles.

Somehow, she doubted it would happen.

Making large batches of potions was surprisingly easy. Freya could have several different types of medicines in cauldrons at once, without sacrificing quality for any of them. In fact, it was easier to make large quantities than to make an individual batch for one person. You had to pull out the smaller cauldron, and smaller utensils, and more often than not, this individual batch was for some ailment or reason that you hadn't encountered yet, which meant that there was some experimenting to be done with the recipe.

This was the problem that Freya faced, she had all the medicines requested by Lissa under control and simmering before noon. She climbed the ladder to the third floor and let out a long sigh as she wondered what she ought to do. If she was going to make a candy, then that would start with making sugar syrup, and brewing whatever herbs went into the medicine into the syrup. It didn't sound hard, but achieving the right temperature on the mixture was quite difficult to do, and if you missed it, the entire batch was a waste of time.

Ginger and elderberry stuck out to her as possible herbs to use, and as she paced the aisles of her greenhouse, taking stock of what was available to her immediately, Freya figured that honeysuckle, echinacea, and andrographis were probably the way to go with this.

As she clipped off bits and pieces of the ingredients she would need, Freya heard the door open on the first floor, and a few soft footsteps as someone quietly entered her tower. "Who's there?"

Could this be her first walk in patient? Adelbert's business thrived off of those, and it seemed about time that she would get hers.

Instead, she was greeted by a soft voice, one that she could barely hear from two floors above the entryway. "It's Lucina, I came to visit." Freya could hear the princess take a few more tentative steps into her tower, as she tried to figure out where the apothecary was located.

 _Damn_. If she'd known she was getting a social visitor today, much less one that was a royal, Freya would have cleaned up more. Alas, the tower was cluttered and there wasn't anything that Freya could do about it. "I'm up in the greenhouse." She glanced at the herbs in her hands with a frown, if Miss Eva was here, she'd tell Freya to go downstairs immediately and brew some tea for the princess, but Freya had a feeling the little girl wouldn't appreciate any special treatment. "You can come up, if you would like." Freya peered down the hole where the ladder protruded from, double checking that the climb wouldn't be too hard for the child. "Be careful on the ladder, please."

Lucina gave her a determined nod, before slowly climbing her way up to the greenhouse. To Freya, the room had almost lost its luster. It was quite large, and had quite a number of plants in it, but the dead or dying ones stuck out like a sore thumb. However, the little princess seemed almost in awe as she climbed into the third floor. Many of the plants were taller than her, and it gave the impression that she was walking through a small forest inside a building.

She approached a crouching Freya, where a basket filled with fragrant flowers rested beside her. Lucina was greeted with a smile from the woman, "It's good to see you again. How are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling well, thank you." She inspected the plant before her, that Freya had been clipping flowers from. "What is this?"

"It's honeysuckle." Feeling indulgent, Freya pressed a flower into Lucina's hand, "Try it, it tastes quite good." She couldn't help but chuckle at the surprised look on the child's face, it wasn't often that people were instructed to place a flower in their mouths, and Freya suspected Lucina had never done it. Hesitantly, Lucina placed it into mouth, eyes widening at the sweet taste.

Freya popped one into her own mouth, and slowly chewed on it as she took a survey of what was in her basket. That ought to be enough to make a decent batch of candy for the princess. "Do you like it?"

There was an enthusiastic nod from the princess, "I do! It's quite nice." Of course she knew that some plants were edible, but she'd never actually eaten a flower before. Unless of course, you counted her rose tea—but the child wasn't sure that counted.

"I'm glad you like it, I'll be using it for your medicine." She could see the confusion wash over the princess' face, and as she rose up to stand, Freya picked up the basket of flowers, "Your mother asked me to make you a medicine, as a continuation of your treatment."

Without hesitation Lucina followed Freya down the ladder to the second floor workroom. Silently, she wondered why there was a disheveled cot in the corner. The thought she did vocalize however was, "I feel better though, I don't think I need any medicine." At the very least, Lucina hoped she didn't. While she hadn't been completely awake for most of her treatment after being poisoned, she could still taste the potion she'd been made to take. It had tasted heavily of soot, and garlic. Just thinking of it made her want to gag.

Silently, Freya drew a stool up to the worktable where she was at and patted the surface. This would give the child an opportunity to see her medicine made. Hopefully that would ease any anxieties about taking it. "I know you do, and you are much better, there's no more of the poison in your system. However, your mother wants me to make something that will keep you strong, and hopefully keep away sickness. The latter was a bit of a tall order, but Freya would do her best. Seeing the apprehensive look on Lucina's face, Freya felt a tug of sympathy. She could remember being sick when she was quite little, and being forced to down one of Adelbert's potions.

She could still remember the taste. Making the potion now, all these years later, still made Freya feel sick to her stomach.

"It's going to taste much better than the last one." With that, some of the anxiety melted away from the little girl's face. "I'm using all of these flowers in it, and it's going to be a candy for you." Freya eyed the basket before her, and gently moved a handful of flowers into a small bowl before setting it before Lucina. "You can try all of them yourself, it'll be these and sugar. It won't even taste like medicine."

Lucina delicately plucked what appeared to be a cone shaped daisy from the basket and popped it into her mouth. It didn't taste bad at all, though she found herself favoring the honeysuckle she'd had before. Thoughtfully, she chewed on the flower as Freya got to work, seeing the process of medicine being made was surprisingly nice, it certainly satisfied her curious nature. Peering around the room, Lucina spied three large cauldrons simmering away. "What's in those?"

"I'm making a potion to help ease gout, and another to help ease stomach pains." Both were essentially pain potions, and Freya hoped that the child wouldn't feel the need to sample anything—she didn't want to have to explain a potion-addled Lucina to her parents. "Be careful around them, they're quite strong, and the cauldron is quite hot."

Freya kept a watchful eye on the child as Lucina hopped off the stool, bowl in hand as she explored the room. "Do you make all of your potions in here?" Lucina stood an arms length away from the oven, it was a rather scary thing in her opinion. The opening was built into a wall, and when in use, had a raging fire inside of it, that had to be tended to. She'd seen a cook fearlessly put his arm inside to put in more wood, or to take out bread that had finished baking. Granted he'd been able to pull his arm out unscathed, but still the thought made her shudder.

Thankfully, the big oven didn't contain a roaring fire at the moment. There were a few embers in it, glowing underneath piles of ash, but nothing to be especially afraid of. "What do you use the oven for?" It wasn't as if Freya was in there baking treats. Potions were cooked over a fire yes, but not in ovens, as far as Lucina was aware.

"I use it to dry out plants." Freya ceased her chopping, careful that her voice didn't come across as patronizing. She motioned to the ceiling above them, which seemed so much lower with all of the herbs hanging down in bundles to dry. It lent the room a grassy aroma, which was pleasant, but taller people than Freya tended to get plants stuck in their hair. "I also hang them from the ceiling to dry, but I use the oven if I need them quickly." Or at least, quicker than a week. She frowned a bit, at the sight of Lucina close to the oven, "Be careful, don't get too much closer, I know it's not fully lit but it's still dangerous."

With that, Lucina took one more step back before finally moving on from the oven and continuing her exploration of the room. Freya got back to work, striding away from the worktable to the stove to start melting the sugar for the candy. Lucina followed quietly, peering into the pot as Freya did her work, asking questions as they came to her mind as the older woman worked.

Stahl couldn't keep the wide grin off his face as he walked back to the tower with Evert. They hadn't addressed the tension between them today, but after some time together it had seemed to melt away enough that they could enjoy their time together. At the very least, Evert had laughed with him and seemed eager to explore the city. It had worked like Stahl had hoped, going through some place new and exciting, especially when compared their tiny home village, Evert had become immediately more receptive to talking.

The walk back from the stables to the tower was a short one, only about a quarter mile, and was filled with the brother's chatter about what they had seen that day.

"Father would be so surprised if he saw all the plants they had for sale here." Evert was still shaking his head in surprise, even if everything hadn't been medicinal in the shop they'd gone into, it had still been an incredible amount. There had been a great deal of things that he didn't even know existed until just today. "We ought to send back some seeds and a book if we can, he could find some use in them I'm sure."

As Evert opened the door, he was shocked to see the crown Princess sitting at Freya's kitchen table, helping his friend wrap up individual candies in little scraps of paper. He wasn't entirely sure how to proceed, based on prior experience, the little girl wouldn't want him to bow or make a big fuss. However, treating her like just another child still wasn't something Evert was comfortable with.

Freya saw the conflict on Evert's face and gave a small laugh. Stahl seemed just as at ease as Freya was in this situation and gave Lucina a bright smile as he walked in. "Hello there Lucina, did you spend the day here with Freya?"

"I did! I helped her make my new medicine." Freya had let her measure out the flowers and sugar as they had gone into the mixture, and had helped the child pour the hot candy into molds. It had been quite fun, really. Lucina wrapped up the last candy and popped it into a large jar that Freya had given her. She was to take five of them a day, and no more. She suspected that nothing bad would happen if she took more than that, but she didn't care to test that. She'd leave being the risk taker to her sister Kjelle.

"That sounds like a fun day!" Stahl examined the jar, assuming that Freya had made the medicine into a candy so it would be more palatable for a child. Already she seemed to be a step ahead of his father. A glance outside showed that it was twilight, and Stahl suspected that it was just about Lucina's bedtime. "I think it's about time you went home though, you'll be needing your rest." The palace grounds were quite safe, and if it weren't for the poisoner running around, he would have been alright with her walking back herself. However, there was a would be assassin running amok, and Stahl didn't like the idea of the child walking the half mile to the castle alone in the dark. "I'll walk you back, alright?"

Lucina nodded without question. She'd always liked spending time with Stahl. He and her mother were quite close, and he always slipped her and the other palace children sweets when he saw them. In fact, the knight seemed to always have some sort of candy on him. She smiled at Freya, quite happy at how their day together had been spent. "May I come and visit you again?" Perhaps she'd bring Kjelle next time, though she wasn't sure if her sister would get bored or not.

As Freya nodded and said that would be quite nice, Stahl double checked that all the candies were in the jar before bidding farewell to Freya and his brother, and walking Lucina out the door. If he dallied much longer, Frederick would surely have a fit trying to find out where the Princess was—he'd begun to crack down much more on security after the poisoning.

Once the pair were gone, Evert snapped out of his silence and confusion, and Freya piped up from the table. "Just treat the royals like normal people, it's what they like."

"I know," He'd just have to get over it, he supposed. Shaking his head, he sat down across from Freya at the little table. "So you went with my candy idea?"

"I did, it was the only choice I had really—I'm not sure she'd have gone with a regular tonic or potion. She seemed quite frightened at the aspect of another one of those."

Not surprising really, most medicines weren't designed to taste good, especially ones that Adelbert had made.

"What do we still have to do?"

Freya looked upwards at the ceiling, picturing the workshop above in her mind. "I still need to package up the other potions I made today, and bundle up a lot of plants for drying…." It wasn't that late, but by the time the pair finished, it would be. "Do you mind helping me? I'm sure you're tired from your day out."

Evert shrugged, he was, but he'd come to help Freya out after all. "Don't worry about that. I'll help."

"Did you and Stahl have fun?"

He paused as he stood up from the table, thinking back at their day. It had been uncomfortable initially, but after a while the anxiety had melted away and he'd actually enjoyed spending time with his brother. It had almost been like they were kids again.

"We did, yeah."

With a smile on his face, he ascended the ladder to the workshop, and Freya grinned at the thought of the two brothers finally being at ease with one another.


	14. Author's Note

Author's Note

 _Hello! If you've gotten this far, it means you've read my story for quite some time, and I just wanted to thank you for that! I've put a lot of thought and effort into this fanfiction of mine, and I'm happy to say that things are only just beginning in the story, and there's much more to come! Without revealing too much, there's going to be much more of Marc in the chapters to come._

 _That being said, some of you might have noticed an error of mine! I originally started writing this story in first person, and continued to do so up until Chapter 6 when I needed to switch perspective fluidly from Freya to Evert. After that point, without thinking, the whole story was in third person. I didn't notice the change until I hit Chapter 10. I've changed Chapter 3,4, and 5, into third person and plan to fix Chapter 1, 2 and the prologue within the next few weeks._

 _I know I'm quite slow in posting chapters, and it's solely because I want to post the best thing I can for you. I have Chapter 13 written right now, and it's going through the editing process thanks to my two wonderful friends who help me by beta reading my story. As I'm writing this I am also planning Chapter 14, and I hope to have that out by mid June._

 _Without making this note too long, I'd like to say a quick thank you to everyone who has left a review, favorited my story, and all of the ones who follow it. It always makes me smile when I see someone has done that, and it makes me want to keep writing._

 _Thank you all again, and have a good day!_


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